Quietly and gradually the FCA is changing and not before time. 

There have been a few signs of this in the past few weeks and months and let's hope the change is lasting and continuous.

One sign of modernisation came this week with the FCA launching services on TikTok and YouTube to warn younger investors about the dangers of high risk investments such as crypto.

A few people mocked the TikTok move in particular. TikTok is probably best known for looped videos of dancing nurses and the like but as the saying goes, the kids love it. It is a way to reach mass audiences.

If the FCA is to reach - and protect - a wider audience then TikTok is one of the ways to do it.

We’ve also seen this week the FCA being proactive in asking to extend its own regulatory perimeter to tackle online harms better. In recent months we’ve also seen a major executive overhaul as a new team takes charge. Many of the faces at the FCA's senior level are changing.

Much of this, I suspect has been inspired by new CEO Nikhil Rathi’s desire to be seen as a new broom. An innovator willing to change the regulator. I expect more changes on the way too.

The truth is, of course, that after the £236m LCF mini-bond debacle and the furore over the BSPS pension transfers mess, which has now resulted in National Audit Office probe, things had to change.

The FCA is also no longer the only kid on the block. The Pensions Regulator is increasingly flexing its muscle and other government departments, like the Competition and Markets Authority, are also taking a more robust line on financial issues.

It would only take a disgruntled Prime Minister to lose patience with the FCA for its empire to come crashing down with its key roles passed to other regulators.

Despite the issues, however, I believe it would be a disaster for the FCA to be dismantled and then relaunched the following week under a slightly different name as has happened so many times, with little real improvement in regulation.

The secret here is to be patient. As Bob Dylan once sang ‘The Times They Are A-Changin’ and the times are now changing for the FCA as a new and hopefully more proactive regulator emerges not before time. Let’s see.