The FCA’s plan to auto-delete emails is an exercise of managing reputation, not standards, writes Eliot Wilson

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), like all the United Kingdom’s major regulatory bodies, has been in the news recently as the government searches desperately for a way to kick-start the economy. On Christmas Eve, the Prime Minister wrote to the regulators demanding “concrete proposals” to “prioritise growth”.

I suggested a few weeks ago that Sir Keir Starmer’s appeal to the FCA and others was an exercise in spreading blame for lacklustre economic performance. In any event, the primary role of regulators is to enforce standards and protect consumers. In order to do that, they must be, like Caesar’s wife, beyond reproach, exhibiting at least the standards of fairness, transparency and ethical conduct they demand of the industries they police.

The FCA’s email deleting plan

It was astonishing, therefore, to

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