The Financial Services Authority (FSA) is an independent body which regulates the financial services industry in the UK. It has an annual budget of £170 million, is headed by Sir Howard Davies and was given statutory powers by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.

The FSA has the job of maintaining confidence in the UK financial system, to promote public understanding of the financial system, to secure an appropriate degree of protection for consumers and contribute to reducing financial crime. They achieve this by, among other things, supervising exchanges, settlement houses and other market infrastructure providers and by conducting market surveillance and transaction monitoring. They help consumers get the knowledge, aptitude and skills necessary to become informed consumers, so that they can manage their financial affairs more effectively. Their work focuses on three main types of financial crime: money laundering, fraud and dishonesty, and criminal market misconduct such as insider dealing.

New Responsibilities of the FSA
The FSA have taken on a series of new responsibilities not covered by the previous regulatory regimes and these are:

Mutual Societies Registration.
The FSA are responsible for the registration and public records of about 9,500 industrial and provident societies, 3000 societies registered under the Friendly Societies legislation, 700 credit unions and around 70 building societies.

Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts.
The FSA have powers under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contract Regulations 1999 to take action to deal with unfair terms in financial services consumer contracts.

Lloyd’s Insurance Market.
The FSA are responsible for regulating the Lloyd's insurance market. Large parts of their rules apply to the Society of Lloyd's and the underwriting agents working in the Lloyd’s market, although some provision is made for the unique nature of the market. Both the Society and the underwriting agents are supervised. The Society’s regulatory division carries out some of the supervision of underwriting agents for the FSA.

The Code of Market Conduct.
This is part of the new regime for tackling market abuse. The FSA will exercise powers under civil law to bridge what was a significant gap in the ability of the UK authorities to deal with market abuse.

Recognised Overseas Investment Exchanges.
The FSA are responsible for applications from, and supervising, recognised overseas investment exchanges (ROIEs) and recognised overseas clearing houses (ROCHs). They have taken over these responsibilities from the Treasury. Current ROIEs include the Sydney Futures Exchange and NASDAQ. Overseas recognised bodies are subject to the recognition requirements laid down in FSMA. These are designed to ensure that they deliver a standard of investor protection equivalent to that delivered by UK recognised bodies. The concept relies on the overseas bodies’ home regulators supervising them effectively.
More info: www.fsa.gov.uk Tel: 0845 606 1234

Consumers' Association:
Consumers' Association is governed by a Council of management consisting of 12 elected Council Members and up to six co-opted Council Members. Council is responsible for the direction of the work of Consumers' Association. The Council meets seven times a year and there is an Annual General Meeting each year. There are approximately 13,000 Ordinary members and it is completely free to join.

All Ordinary Members are invited to attend the Annual General Meeting each year. This is an opportunity to put questions to the Chairman, Director and other senior members of staff. Ordinary Members can also vote in annual Council elections. They can even stand for election themselves. All Ordinary Members receive a copy of the Annual Report and Accounts.
More info: www.which.net Tel: 0800 252100

Financial Ombudsman:
The Financial Ombudsman was set up by law to help settle individual disputes between consumers and financial firms, The Financial Ombudsman can consider most personal finance disputes, from insurance and mortgages to pensions and investments.

The service is free to consumers, but the body do not write the rules for financial firms or punish and fine firms if rules are broken. The consumer must complain to the firm first, before the Financial Ombudsman can look at the case. Their decisions are binding on firms but not on the consumer. The consumer does not have to accept any decisions made by them and are always free to go to court instead. The Financial Ombudsman can't give personal advice about financial matters or debt problems and are independent of the government and financial firms.
More info: www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk Tel: 0845 080 1800

The Banking Code Standards Board:
The Banking Code Standards Board, established in October 1999, aims to ensure that personal customers get a fair deal from all banks and building societies which subscribe to the Code. As a voluntary code, it allows competition and market forces to work to encourage higher standards for the benefit of customers. The standards of the Code are covered by 10 key commitments. These apply to products and services provided to personal customers. The New Code came into effect on 1st January 2001.
More info: www.bankingcode.org.uk Tel: 020 7661 9694

The Mortgage Code sets the standards of good practice as to how mortgage lenders and brokers deal with their customers. The Board itself is an independent, non-profit making organisation established to monitor compliance with the Mortgage Code. Its main purpose is to ensure that mortgage customers are fully informed and adequately protected when taking out a mortgage through a lender or broker.
More info: www.mortgagecode.org.uk Tel: 01785 218200

The General Insurance Standards Council (GISC) is an independent, non-statutory organisation that was officially launched on 3 July 2000 to regulate the sales, advice and service standards of its members. GISC members may be insurers or intermediaries or others involved in general insurance such as claims handlers. Their stated purpose is to make sure that general insurance customers are treated fairly.

The scope of the GISC covers all types of general insurance for individuals and their families but does not regulate the price charged for a general insurance policy, nor does it regulate life assurance or pensions. GISC members are monitored to make sure they follow the standards in the Codes.

One of the features of GISC's corporate governance structure is the operation of an independent Scrutiny Committee whose remit is to assess the effectiveness of the Board in creating a regime which adequately protects general insurance customers.
More info: www.gisc.co.uk Tel: 0845 601 2857