The City minister has asked the financial watchdog to rethink plans to ‘name and shame’ some firms it investigates, suggesting she could overrule it.
Speaking at the fringes of the Labour party conference, Tulip Siddiq said she has held several meetings with the regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, to question them about their plans before determining if she will allow them to proceed.
“I didn’t think it was great in the way that it was done. I’ll see what they report back at the next meeting and make a decision,” she said.
Her remarks come after lobbying groups, including UK Finance, suggested the naming and shaming approach could be “harmful to wider financial stability”.
Siddiq’s position is similar to that of former chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who was criticised for pushing back against the FCA’s plans, due to its supposed independence from government.
The FCA has said its plans would only involve naming firms where there was a clear public interest to do so.
Siddiq also singled out fintech company Revolut – with whose UK chief executive, Francesca Carlesi, she appeared on stage – for their research on economic crime, saying it was “forming some of the script” for her on the topic.
Her remarks come after the company received a UK banking licence in July. The process took three years, far longer than the business had initially suggested.
This summer, the Financial Ombudsman Service revealed that Revolut topped the list for new fraud and scam complaints. The company has been on a recruitment drive to beef up its compliance teams.
When asked, Carlesi said there was “no trade off” with growth and that compliance was critical for the company’s growth plans.
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“We employ almost 4,000 people in compliance and the company has invested a lot,” she said.
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority reportedly investigated the business in 2016 after a whistleblower claimed it was failing to conduct adequate money-laundering checks or properly flag suspect payments. The investigation was closed in 2017.