Elderfield pledges to ‘get tough’

A GET tough approach, making examples of financial companies engaged in over-charging and slack practices, is to be a key tool employed by the Financial Regulator in his battle to protect consumers.

The head of financial regulation at the Central Bank of Ireland Matthew Elderfield said that part of its overall strategy is to place greater emphasis on the use of enforcement as a strong deterrent.

“Taking tough enforcement action when we see slack practices is a more effective way of providing a deterrent across a wide population of firms, to encourage better practice in the future,” he told the Association of Compliance Officers in Ireland in UCC.