UK financial regulator appoints consumer guru

Written by Ray Clancy

Thursday, 07 January 2010 09:32

The Financial Services Authority, the UK’s financial regulatory body, has hired a consumer adviser in a bid to strengthen its understanding of issues that affect ordinary people.

Julian Edwards, who previously worked for Which?, has been appointed to the new role of consumer senior adviser.

FSA chief executive Hector Sants, said Edwards’s role will be to help the organisation to ‘proactively identify and address issues that have the potential to harm consumers’.

It marks a change in the FSA approach to dealing with consumer issues. ‘Through intensive and intrusive regulation we are focusing our skills and insight into not just taking action when we find failures, but proactively identifying and addressing issues that have the potential to harm consumers,’ explained Sants.
‘This is a step change in approach and Julian will have an invaluable role in ensuring that we have the ability to achieve this. He has considerable experience to bring to bear on the key issues that we face in protecting consumers,’ he added.

Edwards, who took up his role on January 01, has more than 30 years experience as a consumer champion working for various organisations including Which? and Consumer International, the global federation of consumer organisations where he was director general.
Senior advisors are a core part of the FSA’s delivery of intensive supervision. The team provides experience on regulatory, market and now consumer matters.

The FSA regulates the financial services industry in the UK and has four objectives under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000: maintaining market confidence; promoting public understanding of the financial system; securing the appropriate degree of protection for consumers; and fighting financial crime.