The watchdog's double whammy

You're staring down two loaded barrels, as the Financial Conduct Authority wields section 166 reports and attestations in combination, to hold firms and senior managers to account. Esther Martin spoke to Rob Moulton about the supervisory arsenal, political pressure and how 'caveat emptor' was felled in the fray.

Rob Moulton is a partner at Ashurst who specialises in financial services regulatory advice. He may be contacted at rob.moulton@ashurst.com.

For several years now the regulator has been enthusiastically using its powers under section 166 of the Financial Services and Markets Act to require firms to provide reports by skilled persons into aspects of their operations. But this year it's attestations that everyone's talking about - that is, where a senior individual at a firm attests to the FCA that a problem has been solved.