UK: New banking watchdog preps for ‘hands on’ approach

The UK is set to welcome a new payments regulator in April of next year, a move that will overhaul the current self-regulating approach of industry players and one that will take a more hands-on approach to boosting competition in the banking sector.

According to reports, the new Payments Systems Regulator is readying to operate in conjunction with the Payments Council, the group of financial institutions that sets out strategy for the industry.

While regulators have often established a framework of regulation and allowed competition to push innovation, PSR acting managing director Mary Starks told reporters that may not be enough.

”I think there’s a question in payments of whether that [framework] is enough or whether the regulator will need to go further and be a bit more directive,” Starks said.

The new banking authority will come into operation at a crucial time for the UK, which recently launched its new Competition and Markets Authority last April and which is still feeling affects of the ongoing scandal of LIBOR and other benchmark interest rate manipulation, a case that has lead to regulators taking a tighter grip within the financial markets across the globe.

Full content: Finextra

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