By Steve Conley, Founder, Academy of Life Planning
“Risk is good,” proclaims the watchdog. But when the guard dog starts wagging its tail at the City, who’s protecting the public?
Last week, FT Adviser reports that at the Global Management Summit, Simon Walls—Executive Director of Markets at what is still officially called the Financial Conduct Authority—told an audience of financiers:
“Risk is good. In much of financial markets, risk is the point.”
It was an astonishing statement from a regulator. But then again, this is no longer a regulator in the traditional sense. It has become the “Financial Growth Authority“—a body now more focused on lubricating capital markets than protecting citizens.
While thousands of victims of financial exploitation await justice—ignored, obstructed, or fobbed off—the FGA proudly announces a new chapter: one in which risk isn’t managed, but celebrated.
From Protection to Promotion
Walls explained that risk-taking drives growth, innovation, and capital formation. That loosening listing rules, watering down prospectus requirements, and sidelining shareholder scrutiny are all part of this bold new vision.
He even boasted that their forthcoming private stock exchange, Pisces, will allow insiders to trade without the burden of insider dealing rules.
This is not regulation. This is promotion of speculative finance in its rawest form—at the expense of public trust, market transparency, and investor safety.
Risk for Whom?
The FGA’s new mantra—“Risk is good”—betrays a wilful blindness to history. Risk, when unaccountable, has delivered:
- Mis-sold pensions and life savings destroyed
- Mini-bond collapses and fraudulent investment schemes
- An ever-growing queue of victims seeking redress from an unresponsive system
For those who profit from volatility, risk is indeed a game. But for the ordinary person, it can mean bankruptcy, stress, and long-term financial ruin.
When a regulator stops asking who bears the consequences of risk, it has stopped regulating.
A Captured Agenda
What we are witnessing is regulatory capture in plain sight.
The FGA is no longer an independent steward of the market. It is a delivery partner for the Prime Minister’s growth agenda, reshaping rules not for safety, but for speed. Not for integrity, but for capital inflows.
It even boasts of responding to government pressure with a 50-point action plan—most of which involve lowering standards, removing barriers, and rebalancing risk away from the state and towards the citizen.
Have We Learned Nothing?
This playbook is familiar. It’s the same logic that underpinned the 2008 crash. The same short-termism that led to the Woodford scandal. The same blindness to systemic risk that has left savers vulnerable time and time again.
We’ve been here before. But this time, the difference is chilling: the regulator is no longer pretending to restrain. It’s actively encouraging the behaviour that leads to disaster.
Where Now?
We must stop using the word “regulator” as though it still applies. What we are left with is a growth agency wearing the mask of public duty.
It is time to ask:
- Who holds the FCA accountable when it sacrifices protection for productivity?
- Who speaks for the victims when the watchdog barks only for the City?
- And how long can this charade continue before the next scandal erupts?
A Line Must Be Drawn
The public deserves transparency, not betrayal. Justice, not jargon. Regulation, not risk marketing.
We don’t need a Financial Growth Authority. We need a genuine, independent regulator—one that remembers its purpose: to protect people from harm.
Until then, let us call this what it is: a captured system, steering us into the storm with a grin.
Your Money or Your Life
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By Steve Conley. Available on Amazon. Visit www.steve.conley.co.uk to find out more.
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