FSA bubble-blind sockpuppets get tidy bonuses

[Menelaus]

They are poorly-paid civil servants tasked with regulating an industry that they have little knowledge of.

It was something to be said for the self-regulatory organisations that the FSA replaced, at least they understood the business that was being regulated.

I don't think that the opportunity to point the finger squarely at the architect of the current regulatory regime and its shortcomings should be overlooked - Gordon Brown of course.

Actually, they aren't that poorly paid and many people in my industry (quantitative risk) do a stint at the FSA after a few years in the industry because it "looks good on the CV". I didn't do it - only because, in my experience, the muppets at the FSA are so hog tied by what they can and can't do that they've like eunuchs in a harem.

The FSA is the creation of the NuLiebore government that, in 1997, felt that they could do whatever the hell they wanted and created a clunking tripartite system between HM Treasury, Bank of England and the FSA.

My experience with the FSA to date is that - if you want to talk to them - you'll get precisely no guidance as to how to do something, or even if your proposed approach is the right one. They'll tell you if you're wrong, just not if you're right. Whilst this is an approach that they themselves developed - and saves them from being seen to "approve" one approach over another - it's frustrating as hell.

Equally, if one does do something innovative around a regulation that they themselves have adopted from an international body (e.g., BIS) they'll want to know not just the nuts and bolts of how it works - despite not understanding it - but they'll take ages over the minutae of decision making and ask questions such as (where determining future losses on a mortgage)

"how do you know that the Halifax and Nationwide house price indices are right?"

I'd like to think that it's to my credit that I didn't reach across the boardroom table and strangle the idiot ****er who'd asked that question. I merely created an example of the cost of a London Underground travelcard - how do you know that the price you pay is the right one? Well, you validate it - which is what we'd done. ****tard.

Ahem. And ... breathe.

As an ultimately political body, the FSA have been over a barrel since their establishment. They're on a major recruitment drive at the moment too, so if anyone feels like a job in Canary Wharf, let me know and I'll put you in touch with the relevant people.

[sweetandsour]

I don't think you can blame the people in the FSA themselves.

They are poorly-paid civil servants tasked with regulating an industry that they have little knowledge of.

It was something to be said for the self-regulatory organisations that the FSA replaced, at least they understood the business that was being regulated.

I don't think that the opportunity to point the finger squarely at the architect of the current regulatory regime and its shortcomings should be overlooked - Gordon Brown of course.

[DimPrawn]

I'll write to my MP and complain about the greedy feckers.

[CheeseSlice]

(Not sure if this one has been posted yet)

This didn't get the press attention that it deserves. Those MPs may be crooks, but expenses didn't put us all out of work like this little blunder helped to achieve.
Those muppets that call themselves economists and financial experts who blame human error for not spotting the biggest bubble in history have been rewarded for failure.

"Bank watchdog ‘failures’ pocket £20m in bonuses

STAFF at the Financial Services Authority (FSA) who presided over the near failure of the banking system were last month awarded bonuses of £19.7m – a 40% increase on the previous year.

News of their rewards coincides with the disclosure that the FSA was among banking regulators who identified Northern Rock as the weak link in the banking system in 2004 – three years before its collapse.

One FSA official was paid an award of £90,000 in April and 10 staff received bonuses of £50,000 or more, figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show. The 2,500 staff at the City watchdog were on average paid bonuses of nearly £8,000 in April.

The information also disclosed that 174 of its staff now receive a six-figure salary – and, on average, these FSA executives each received a bonus of £22,485. Only three of these high earners failed to receive any bonus."... continued