The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is getting better at timely consumer interventions, chief executive Nikhil Rathi has told MPs during their probe into the British Steel Pensions Scheme (BSPS) scandal.

The Public Account Committee questioned Mr Rathi yesterday, along with other financial regulation chiefs.

Mr Rathi said the FCA is also working hard on improving its monitoring but said there is a lot of work still to be done when it comes to smaller firms.

He said: “We have to get better at monitoring smaller firms, and we are working on our data. We have been getting on top of it and issuing warnings.”

The FCA has recently issued warnings related to the Rolls Royce and P&O Ferries pension schemes, he added.

The Committee also questioned Nausicaa Delfas, interim chief executive of the Financial Ombudsman Service, Caroline Rainbird, chief executive of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, and Sheldon Mills, executive director of consumers and competition at the FCA.

The Committee also questioned Mr Rathi and Mr Mills about the FCA’s approach to the aftermath of the BSPS scandal, and ongoing plans.

Mr Mills said the FCA expects to have a redress scheme up and running in the first two months of 2023 but said that decisions around redress “can take time”.

Mr Rathi added that a lot of steelworkers have yet to raise complaints. He said there are around 4,000 former BSPS members that the regulator has had no contact with, 75% of whom have not complained to any regulatory bodies.