Levy increase to pay for extra staff and IT upgrades
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) will squeeze an extra 15% in levies from financial firms for the 2013-14 year.
The FSA’s levy for the 2012-13 year is £559.8m, whereas the new levies will be £646.3m, according to an FCA statement from today.
The increase will pay for more FCA and PRA supervision staff, IT upgrades and an increase in the regulator’s bill for central support services.
Generally, the levy pays for the running of the FCA, PRA, Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) and the Money Advice Service (MAS).
But the increase will mainly be borne by larger firms. The gross minimum fee is £1,000, and the FCA said that this will apply to 42% of financial firms under the new funding structure.
FCA chief executive Martin Wheatley said: “We are introducing new approaches to the way we do much of our work, becoming much more proactive and consumer focussed.
“The increases will be borne mainly by larger and more complex groups with medium sized firms seeing a proportionate increase.
“The FCA recognises the difficult economic circumstances for many firms and is committed to keeping any essential cost increases to a minimum.”
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