Regulatory and Legal Commentary. From Chancellor's Statement to Statute Book: A retrospective on the Financial Services and Markets Act
| Published date | 01 March 2000 |
| Date | 01 March 2000 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb025049 |
| Pages | 269-279 |
| Author | Joanna Gray |
| Subject Matter | Accounting & finance |
Journal of Financial Regulation and Compliance Volume 8 Number 3
Regulatory and Legal Commentary
From Chancellor's Statement to Statute Book:
A retrospective on the Financial Services
and Markets Act
Joanna Gray
Reader in Financial Regulation, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle Law School,
21-24 Windsor Terrace, Jesmond, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU; tel: +44 (0)191 222 7685;
fax: +44 (0)191 212 0064 or tel:/fax: +44 (0)1669 650 349; e-mail: joanna.gray@newcastle.ac.uk
INTRODUCTION
As readers of this Journal are probably by
now immersed in the strategic and practical
preparatory work for the full implementa-
tion of the Financial Services and Markets
Act (N2) next year (which, at the time of
writing, is expected to be summer 2001) it
is nevertheless worthwhile casting a back-
ward glance over the regulatory reform
process that began in May 1997 with the
then new Chancellor's Statement to the
House of Commons. An important mile-
stone in this reform process was reached
three years later on 14th June when Royal
Assent was attached to the Financial Ser-
vices and Markets Bill and converted it
into legislation. The Bill has been referred
to as the most heavily amended ever with
some 2,750 amendments tabled and nearly
1,500 agreed.1 The Financial Services and
Markets Act (the Act) now consists of 433
s. and 22 Schs. but how it reached that
final form is a very long story indeed. In
parts,
that story has been a highly technical
one of interest only to the legal, compli-
ance or product design specialist, in parts,
the story has been one of the highest level
of non-partisan intellectual sophistication
and debate and, in other parts, it has been
one of highly charged political debate. This
paper will not even attempt to begin to
consider all the amendments agreed but
instead will single out a few of the more
significant areas of the Act that were the
subject of some contention and/or amend-
ment in its passage into and through Parlia-
ment.
WHY THIS MAJOR LEGISLATIVE
CHANGE?
The answer to this question is provided in
the Statement made to the House of Com-
mons in May 1997 by the Right Hon
Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the Exche-
quer. He highlighted the importance to the
UK of the continuing success of the finan-
cial services sector and integral to that suc-
cess was the confidence of all categories of
market users and potential market users in
the efficacy and coherence of the regulatory
arrangements pertaining to this important
sector. He articulated what many had
come to believe in the light of the rash of
by now well documented investor losses
and regulatory failures that had occurred
throughout the last decade in both the
wholesale and retail ends of the industry.
Namely, that the existing patchwork
Journal of Financial Regulation
and Compliance, Vol. 8. No. 3,
2000,
pp. 268-279
Henry Stewart Publications,
1358-1988
Page 269
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