The Financial Services Authority (FSA) is an independent non-governmental body, given statutory powers by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. We are a company limited by guarantee and financed by the financial services industry. The Board sets our overall policy, but day-to-day decisions and management of the staff are the responsibility of the Executive Committee.

We are accountable to Treasury Ministers and, through them, Parliament. We are operationally independent of government and are funded entirely by the firms we regulate. We are an open and transparent organisation and provide full information for firms, consumers and others about our objectives, plans, policies and rules, including through our website.

We are the independent body that regulates the financial services industry in the UK.

We have been given a wide range of rule-making, investigatory and enforcement powers in order to meet our four statutory objectives. In meeting these, we are also obliged to have regard to the Principles of Good Regulation.

We are an independent organisation responsible for regulating financial services in the UK.

The FSA was set up by government. The government is responsible for the overall scope of our regulatory activities and powers.

We regulate most financial services markets, exchanges and firms. We set the standards that they must meet and can take action against firms if they fail to meet the required standards.