Firms pull out of FSA regulation after rule concerns

Sixty of the 400 law firms which opted into Financial Services Authority (FSA) regulation last year have since pulled out, the regulator has said.

A spokesman said the firms had joined for 'precautionary motives'.

When the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 came into force on 1 December last year, there were concerns that the regular activities of law firms could be caught by the FSA rules.

The spokesman said: 'Firms may have thought there was a fine line between doing some financial business work and thought "We'll go for regulation by the FSA", but in the event realise the work they are doing is mainstream and have therefore now given notice to cancel.' He said it was what the FSA expected.

See feature, page 20 (see [2002] Gazette, 5 December)

Jeremy Fleming