The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is likely to apply more scrutiny to companies' boards prior to implementing its new senior person's regime, a consultancy has suggested.
The Consulting Consortium head of policy Rebecca Prestage (pictured) suggested that actions reminiscent of the Financial Services Authority's clamp-down on Prudential chief executive Tidjane Thiam earlier this year would inform the future approach of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in dealing with senior persons.
She said: "[The regulator] doesn't want a situation where a board has a different ethos to a firm. They want the ethos to trickle down the firm and will make senior people more accountable for their actions."
She suggested that the regulator would perform more public censuring of senior persons and more due diligence on the makeup of boards such as looking more closely at non-executive directors.
She also suggested that a tougher approach on company leaders would help eliminate potential conflicts of interest between compliance officers and the board.
"There is a potential conflict of interest. If you are a compliance officer and the board tells you x,z and z, what are you going to do?"
Prudential's boss Thiam was officially censured following his failure to inform the FSA early enough of his firm's planned takeover of AIA from competitor AIG in 2010, which also resulted in a £30m fine for Prudential and a £153m break fee when the deal fell apart.
The Treasury has confirmed it is to implement changes in how senior figures at financial firms are authorised before they can take up their positions as part of its industry-wide overhaul of the approved person's regime.
This was outlined in the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards' report, Changing banking for good, which was part of the government's wider work on banking reform, however the government stopped short of drawing up further details on what this will mean for advisers.
