Consultation on the Future Regulatory Framework for Financial Services: February 2021

Recommendations:

1. Promoting competitiveness should remain as the responsibility of the government with parliament’s oversight while regulators’ mandate should retain its focus on ensuring the integrity of markets and consumer protection.
2. Regulators’ mandate should be extended to include a commitment to protect and promote the public interest.
3. An independent oversight body dedicated to monitoring the financial services regulators’ activities should be established to enhance democratic accountability.
4. A specialist parliamentary select committee focused on financial services regulation should be established to provide an additional level of parliamentary scrutiny.
5. Responsibility for handling and protecting whistleblowers should be transferred to the new independent oversight body.
6. There should be much greater transparency and stakeholder participation in the development of policy by financial services regulators, including through the creation of citizen panels.