An industry coalition has urged UK ministers to push for an overturn of an unpopular Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) policy around ‘unnecessary’ emails.
The FCA’s new policy, described as “draconian and opaque” in the open letter panned by the Transparency Task Force (TTF), will apply from 1 April, and will require certain emails to be deleted after one year.
The financial watchdog argues that only “unnecessary” emails will be automatically deleted and that those important to Freedom of Information requests will be kept.
However, the coalition questions how any staff could possibly anticipate “with complete accuracy” which emails may be needed in the future.
An excerpt from the letter read: “Automatic deletion of emails therefore presents inevitable, avoidable and irrational risks to the performance and accountability of the organisation that you lead. We cannot think of any other statutory body that employs such a draconian and opaque policy in respect of its email correspondence.”
This argument covers a lot of bases, with emails in the digital world needed for investigations all the time. The letter listed stakeholders that this would directly affect, such as journalists, whistleblowers, HM Treasury, and any individuals or civil society groups that may find themselves in a legal battle with the regulator.
The letter also highlights numerous articles, written by the likes of The Times, which accuse the FCA of hiding information, deleting evidence or reducing transparency. The FCA has also faced parliamentary criticism around its workplace culture of late.
Govt turns attention to regulators
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has recently taken aim at regulators in various sectors, with the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) axed just last week. This action is the government’s latest attempt to create a pro-growth environment, which it believes stagnated because of the amount of red tape.
While many financial institutions supported this initiative, the TTF argues that pushback is needed in cases where “citizens’ rights and welfare are at risk”, suggesting there needs to be some balance between less regulation and safety.
“At a time when government is putting pressure on regulators to deploy a ‘lighter touch’ where doing so might help boost economic growth, we believe it is important that consumer groups push back where citizens’ rights and welfare are at risk, especially – as here – in cases where the only industry beneficiaries are likely to be the bad actors,” the coalition wrote.
“A transparent and accountable financial regulator is, it seems to us, an essential prerequisite for raising the standards of regulation and hence conduct and consumer outcomes; and it is only by improving consumer outcomes that confidence in the industry can be rebuilt and growth re-established.”
Several industry stakeholders have co-signed the letter, including Jesse Griffiths CEO of The Finance Innovation Lab; Paul Delaney, Co-Executive Director of Positive Money; and Anthony Stansfeld, Former National Lead on Fraud at The Police Commission, among others.
These signees have asked the FCA to provide a written statement “at the earliest opportunity” rescinding the new policy.
The FCA told Payment Expert: ‘We are improving our records management approach through better use of technology. Anything that should currently be retained will continue to be kept, but saved centrally so it can be found quicker and more easily.’
