the Financial Conduct Authority will establish a new panel to provide advice on cost/benefit analysis in response to calls from regulated firms.

They want the FCA to act proportionately, so that the costs imposed on firms are proportionate to the benefits gained.

The regulator said the new panel will help demonstrate it uses its rule-making powers appropriately and proportionately.

The views emerged from the latest Practitioner Panel survey, which saw almost 5,000 respondents. Firms also want the regulator to:

• respond efficiently to innovation and new challenges
• improve trust and confidence in the FCA and its supervisors
• make sure there are ongoing improvements in the authorisations process in the service standards quarterly reporting
• look at how the use of data requests is fed back to firms

The FCA said: “We are reflecting on the results about firms’ trust and confidence in supervisors, so that we can build upon the internal changes we have already made to make sure of the best outcomes for consumers and firms.

“We will continue to listen to feedback from firms and make further changes and improvements over the coming months.”

It said it will be taking forward several other actions and considerations over the coming months including:

• improving its authorisations processing times through a programme of transformation work which will make its internal processes more efficient
• introducing changes to the Information Governance Board process, inviting firms to provide feedback after each information request, including how long it took and how much it cost to complete and any suggestions on how to improve the request
• using the Innovation Advisory Group (IAG) to provide a regular forum for the FinTech and RegTech sector and the FCA to discuss issues and opportunities to inform its innovation work and review its Regulatory Sandbox services. It will also provide more opportunities for firms to get involved through its TechSprint events, which will double over the next year.

The survey was conducted between February and April, and included questions seeking firms’ views of FCA communications about the Consumer Duty and the cost-of-living crisis. The response rate was 31%, with a total of 4,881 respondents for all firms, including consumer credit, completing the survey, from a broad range of sectors, firm sizes, business models and locations.

The FCA report is available here