The UK’s Financial Services Act 2012: Some Key Features

In the late 1990s, the UK Financial Services Authority (the "FSA") was created by Gordon Brown, the incumbent-Chancellor of the Exchequer, combining a number of regulatory authorities into a single body to oversee the UK's financial services industry. Together with the Bank of England and the Treasury, the FSA formed part of a tri-partite system of regulation to ensure financial stability. In the financial crisis, the tripartite system proved ineffective in this regard. Therefore, 15 years later, April 1, 2013 saw the start of a new regulatory landscape in the UK as the majority of the reform provisions contained in the Financial Services Act 2012 (the "FS Act") were implemented.¹