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<p>Treasury Ministers and officials meet with a wide range of organisations as part
of the usual policy making process.</p><br /><p>It might be useful to know that the
Treasury publishes a list of ministerial meetings with external organisations. This
is available online at: www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/minister_hospitality.htm.</p><br /><p>As
you are aware, the FCA is an independent non-governmental body responsible for regulating
and supervising the financial services industry. Although the Treasury sets the legal
framework for the regulation of financial services, it has strictly limited powers
in relation to the FCA. In particular, the Treasury has no general power of direction
over the FCA and cannot intervene in individual cases.</p><br /><p>The independence
of the FCA is vital to the role it provides as a safety net for consumers with complaints
against financial services firms. Their credibility, authority and value to consumers
would be undermined if it were possible for the Government to intervene in their decision-making.</p><br
/><p>The FCA regularly publishes information on the progress of the redress scheme.
This can be found here: www.fca.org.uk/consumers/financial-services-products/banking/interest-rate-hedging-products.</p><br
/><p>You may be aware that the Treasury Select Committee’s report into SME lending,
published on 10 March, recommended that the FCA collect the information necessary
to establish whether there are systemic failures in the redress scheme. The FCA has
responded and the Committee, which published this response on 12 October 2015. It
can be found here: www.parliament.uk/documents/commons-committees/treasury/Responses/Financial-Conduct-Authority-response-to-Conduct-and-Competition-in-SME.pdf</p>
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