FSA Admits "Skill Shortage."

In an interesting use of language, the Financial Services Authority has blamed its incompetency in regulating the banks and finance industry as a failure to "foster the skills necessary to monitor the capital adequacy of the banks." This summons up an image of low level administrative clerks who simply didn't have the necessary qualifications for the job. Which begs two questions. Was the oversight of the banking industry really in the hands of clerical officers and, if so, why? And what, exactly, were the highly paid directors of the FSA doing all day? Not, apparently, monitoring training for their staff or actually keeping an eye on the banks. Are we to presume then that the director's spent their days in such crucial tasks as enforcing the clear desk policy, lean management techniques, diversity coordination and making sure the car parking rota was working efficiently? Having had direct dealings with the FSA myself, I think that is more than likely. I once had cause to report to the FSA that the company I was working for was lying to its customers about finance rates and deliberately miss-selling payment protection insurance. Their answer? "We do not investigate individual cases." Worse yet, when I was sacked for "whistle blowing" they were not in the least bit interested. That was the level of their scrutiny - nonexistant. No wonder the banks were able to run amok without anyone noticing.