LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has told banks, payment firms and lenders to do more to ensure parliamentarians, senior public servants and their families are not treated unfairly, the watchdog said in a statement on Thursday.
“Public service naturally comes with greater scrutiny. But it must be proportionate and shouldn’t disadvantage people running for office or taking senior public roles, or their families,” the FCA’s executive director of markets and international, Sarah Pritchard, said in the statement.
“That requires a balancing act. Most firms try to get it right but there is more they can do. We’re following up with those firms that were getting the balance wrong to ensure they make changes.”
Last year Alison Rose stepped down as the CEO of lender NatWest after admitting to a “serious error of judgment” in discussing politician Nigel Farage’s relationship with the bank with a BBC journalist.
(Reporting by Muvija M; editing by William James)
