Fact number one is that
this is not the Financial Services Authority's website. The FSA
is not here.
And now for some other FSA
facts:
The FSA has a
spanking new tower block in Canary Wharf for its offices
- and the first 18 months are rent free!
When the FSA moved
from its old buildings, they had to sub-let it because
their lease runs until 2015. The new tenants got a good
deal, because the FSA has set aside over £3 million to
make up the shortfall in the rent.
In 1998-99, the FSA
spent £13.7 million on new computers - no wonder they
took control of the Y2K situation!
The FSA's policy is
to break even on average. Unlike most limited companies,
if they end up down one year, they can jack up their fees
the next year to put it right - and their 'customers'
still have to pay.
When the FSA held
'town meetings' to get the views of ordinary people, it
proclaimed them a great success, with over 700 people
attending.
Of course, these
figures are less impressive when you realise that's 700
from three different meetings.
And the figures are
even less impressive when you realise that half the
working people who went to these meetings were from the
finance industry.
And what's even less
impressive is that the FSA didn't see that coming. For
some reason there haven't been any more town meetings.
Of course, these
meetings were models of openness. Which was why you
weren't allowed in unless you had pre-registered. This
website (which is not the FSA website) isn't about to
tell you that this was to let the FSA check for any
voices of opposition. But fortunately this country still
lets you draw your own conclusions.
Not all the FSA
genius is out on the road, though. Back at Canary Wharf,
they have settled on a corporate colour style with light
green the colour of choice. Not any light green though -
this one fails to photocopy. This means that some graphs
in FSA publications are usless if you try to copy them,
so you have to get multiple copies from the FSA. Now
that's an efficient use of resources!
Talking of the
publications, many of them have won awards from the
'Plain Language Commission'. Yet this commission isn't
listed in any Whitehall directory.
And finally there's
the FSA website (which this is not). The FSA is a private
limited company - yet it has a government website
address. How odd.
We hope you enjoyed those
interesting FSA facts - please do pass on any interesting tidbits
you come across to us at [email protected]
For more details on the
FSA's powers, click here. This site (which is not the FSA) also has quotes about the FSA, addresses and other interesting details of
the FSA board, and some interesting facts about the FSA's operations.
