It has taken a small but significant step this week to cut red tape and giving senior managers more powers to make decision making quicker.

The watchdog is empowering its senior managers with a number of significant new decision-making responsibilities, bypassing much of the unwieldy process of using the FCA's Regulatory Decisions Committee (RDC) to decide on regulatory interventions.

The new powers will cover key areas including a firm’s authorisation or an individual’s approval, starting civil or criminal proceedings or using the FCA’s powers to vary or limit a firm’s permissions.

Giving these powers to individual managers rather than a committee should speed things up, at least that’s the theory.

The FCA’s aim is to be a more “innovative and assertive” regulator. The FCA is putting its big boots on and about time.

The RDC is not being disbanded but will no longer be involved in all the routine regulatory matters which could well be the early, small but crucial interventions which make all the difference.

Stung by recent criticism over its slow response to the failed mini-bond firm London Capital & Finance, and other cases, the FCA is responding.

It’s not time yet to pop the Champagne but the FCA knows it has been guilty of wringing its hands in the past and taking too long to act.

LCF was a good case in point. A firm only 'partly regulated' despite handling hundreds of millions of investors’ money - a status that even the finest minds would struggle to define and a status that left investors baffled and ultimately out of pocket when the firm collapsed.

The warning signs about LCF were many and I will not repeat them here but the failure to act quickly has left the government, UK taxpayers and financial firms footing a bill running into nearly £200m. That’s a pretty expensive mistake.

The FCA’s CEO Nikhil Rathi realises that talking about change is pointless without root and branch reform at the FCA and that’s what he is trying to deliver.

The greater powers for senior managers are a welcome step in the right direction and might just help save a few more individuals from the nightmare of losing their life savings because they trusted a financial firm and trusted UK financial regulation.

Kevin O’Donnell is editor of Financial Planning Today and a journalist with 40 years of experience in finance, business and mainstream news. This topical comment on the Financial Planning news appears most weeks, usually on Fridays but occasionally other days. Follow @FPT_Kevin