ABSTRACT
It is universally accepted nowadays that the regulation of financial markets should strive to achieve transparency, fairness, equal access, effective competition and financial soundness. Currently, a very strong case, substantiated by, inter alia, the 2007–2009 global financial crisis, can be made for asserting that the financial industry had underestimated the value and importance of consumer protection. This chapter provides a brief historical account of the evolution of bank supervision and regulation over the last half century. Then the discussion explores the main regulatory techniques prevalent at the time the last big financial crisis happened, namely, principles-based regulation. The rest of the chapter tracks the transformation of UK regulatory architecture since the onset of the 2007–2009 financial crisis focusing particularly on the Banking Act 2009; the Financial Services Act 2012 and 2016, which abolished the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and introduced the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA); and the Banking Reform Act 2013.
