RE: Further thoughts on Toothless Ombudsmen...
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Definitely an important issue !
I think the key thing is to follow the money. For example, the FCA regulates (among other things) the banking sector. It is funded by subscriptions paid by the banks. Yes, those very people it's supposed to regulate.
To make things even more complicated, the level of subscription needed is calculated by a formula which takes the cost of running the service and then subtracts revenue from penalties levied over the previous year.
So when a bank pays a penalty for some piece of outrageous misbehaviour, from their point of view all it is, is paying some of the annual subscription a bit early. The total paid doesn't vary much.
From the point of view of the regulator, why would they want to upset the very people that pay them so handsomely ? Especially considering the backgrounds of most of their board members working for businesses in that same financial sector ?
You are fucking joking me...? About the fines being taken off next years subs...?
Nope ! But they keep it remarkably quiet. Many other regulators apparently do the same, but I haven't dived as deeply into those (yet...)