The FCA and Practitioner Panel launch joint survey for 2017: findings

The Practitioner Panel used to conduct its own survey to understand more about what the industry thinks, while the FCA also conducted a similar survey. In response to feedback, in 2017 we both started to ask firms to complete a single, joint survey. 

The survey was sent to a sample of 10,000 firms in February 2017. It was carried out on our behalf by Kantar Public, an independent social research organisation.

Key findings

We have continued to track many of the key indicators that the previous surveys used to monitor the work of the regulator, such as effectiveness and satisfaction.

The survey shows that both the industry’s satisfaction with its relationship with us and the industry’s rating of our effectiveness have increased.

The rating for our effectiveness, which was 6.7 out of 10 last year, has risen to 7 this year.

Satisfaction with the regulator increased steadily, from a low of 5.4 out of 10 in 2010 to 7.5 this year.

We are now also tracking data from questions that were introduced last year, such as measuring industry trust and views on our supervisory approach.

The particular challenges faced this year have been reflected in new questions about Brexit and the work we have done to explain our Mission.

Read more findings in the survey report (PDF)

How we will use the survey results

We will use the results of the survey to better understand the issues affecting firms and help us improve how we work. 

Previous survey results

Last year’s Practitioner Panel survey highlighted several areas of concern, including: 

  • knowledge of our staff 
  • the need for more accessible, transparent and forward looking regulation 
  • specific issues with the life insurance and financial advice sectors
  • understanding of the our competition objective 

We produced a document last year on our response to key comments from the independent panels’ annual reports (PDF). As a result of industry feedback, we made changes to our website and the Handbook. You can read more about the feedback we received in our Data Bulletin. We also addressed many of the issues raised by this survey and the firm feedback questionnaire in our Mission consultation.