City bosses shouldn’t wait for the FCA to stamp out toxic workplace behaviour, writes Lucy McNulty in today’s Notebook

The Financial Conduct Authority is due to outline its plans to push City bosses to clamp down on toxic workplace behaviour this month. Compliance chiefs aren’t holding their breath.

After all, this long-anticipated guidance on non-financial misconduct has been delayed twice before as the watchdog grapples with a near-impossible challenge: how best to codify a nebulous issue in pursuit of its commitment to bolster City culture while also responding to political pressure to simplify rulemaking.

The FCA boss Nikhil Rathi has already downplayed the scope of the regulator’s plans. “What can be categorised as non-financial misconduct is quite broad,” he told the Following the Rules podcast in January. “I don’t think we could realistically give completely precise rules for everything.”

The regulator will certainly be keen to avoid a repeat of the backlash it received in response to its efforts to bolster diversity and inclusion in financial services, alongside the Prudential Regulation Authority. Then, complaints of regulatory overreach so jarred with government calls for a reduction in businesses’ compliance burden, the........

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