Is the Financial Services Authority’s (FSA’s) regulatory enforcement regime criminal not civil? It doesn’t think so, nor does the Government. And market abuse aside, the regime created by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 is based on the premise that disciplinary and enforcement charges against authorised firms and approved persons will be classified by courts as determining civil rights and obligations for the purposes of the Human Rights Act 1998 and the European Convention of Human Rights.
The classification of FSA proceedings as civil has a direct effect on its power to investigate offences. Being a regulatory body, the FSA does not have the powers of the police or Serious Fraud Office and even where their powers are similar the FSA’s ability to exercise them is restricted; for example, it is the police who execute a warrant and seize property.
