By Steve Conley | 27 June 2025
This week, FCA CEO Nikhil Rathi stood before the City’s most powerful lobbyists and declared “mission accomplished.” Deregulation demands? Delivered. Compensation levies? Down. Compliance burdens? Dismantled. In a speech at TheCityUK’s annual conference, Rathi confirmed what many suspected: the regulator is no longer regulating for risk—it’s regulating for growth.
But whose growth?
Let’s decode what’s really happening behind the buzzwords and bureaucratic spin.
Trumpeting Low-Hanging Fruit, Silencing Real Harm
Rathi cited the Consumer Duty and anti-fraud efforts as proof of reform, claiming credit for reduced compensation levies. But that decline wasn’t due to fewer victims—just fewer payouts. Victims of financial crime, including pension mis-selling and offshore fraud, continue to be stonewalled. Delays, denials, and disappearing charters are becoming standard practice.
It’s the Post Office scandal playbook: thin the herd, shrink the bill.
Meanwhile, City firms cheer their shrinking regulatory obligations. “Reporting burdens removed,” “client classifications clarified,” “data demands disappeared.” In plain English: less transparency, less oversight, more profit.
A Dangerous Shift: From Risk Aversion to Risk Normalisation
Rathi now speaks of a new era—one where the FCA openly explores “metrics for tolerable failure.” But tolerable for whom? Certainly not for the pensioner defrauded of their life savings, or the family misled into unaffordable debt.
What we’re witnessing is a redefinition of regulatory success:
- Growth > Protection
- Confidence = Compliance light
- Risk = Opportunity for the industry, not threat to the public
Even the Mortgage Charter, a safeguard for struggling homeowners, is now under threat. Why? Because repossessions are low for now. Until they’re not.
Confidence in What, Exactly?
Rathi claims the FCA is building “a different kind of confidence.” But for the average consumer—ignored, undercompensated, unprotected—that confidence has long since evaporated.
Is this really confidence—or the complete erosion of trust?
- When regulators serve lobbyists, not the public, confidence dies.
- When data collection is cut while hedge funds dominate markets, oversight vanishes.
- When charters are scrapped and failure is “tolerable,” injustice becomes policy.
A Regulator in Retreat
This isn’t bold reform. It’s reputation-washing. It’s the FCA stepping back—while the City steps in to write its own rules.
Let’s not pretend that growth at all costs is sustainable. Real economic confidence comes not from deregulation but from a system that is fair, transparent, and accountable to the public.
Anything less is not a regulator—it’s a facilitator.
And to the victims of financial harm still waiting for justice: you deserve more than this “different kind of confidence.” You deserve answers, redress, and a watchdog with teeth.
About Get SAFE
Get SAFE (Support After Financial Exploitation) was born from a simple truth: too many victims of financial abuse are left to suffer in silence.
We exist in memory of Ian Davis—for the ones who did everything right, only to be failed by the systems they trusted. We know that behind every vanished pension, every ignored complaint, and every stonewalled letter is a person—frightened, exhausted, and too often alone.
Get SAFE offers more than sympathy. We offer structure, support, and solidarity.
We provide a voice where there’s been silence, and clarity where there’s been confusion.
We stand beside those who have been exploited, not just to help them recover—but to help them reclaim their story and rebuild their future.
Because financial justice is not a luxury.
It’s a human right.
If you or someone you know has been affected by financial exploitation, we are here.
You are not alone.
Learn more at: Get SAFE (Support After Financial Exploitation).
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