Context
The FCA has received recent criticism over a decision to carry out a ‘mass delete event’ and delete any e-mails from staff inboxes which are more than a year old. In this blog, the FCA’s Director of Intelligence and Digital, Ian Phoenix, wants to set the record straight and explain what the FCA is doing, and why.
Key points to note and next actions
- Any emails received after 1 April 2025 will be deleted from inboxes after a year. This gives staff plenty of time to assess whether the contents of an e-mail are a ‘record’ and – if they are – save them to the central shared drive.
- The FCA is adamant that it is not “deleting evidence” or “hiding information” or “reducing transparency”, and that there is no change to its policy of what constitutes a record and how long it should be saved for.
- The FCA is modernising how it manages its records to make it more efficient and effective.
- Many of its records are already stored in a secure, shared repository, and the FCA wants to make sure the same goes for all e-mails which may be records, for example, those which explain how a particular decision was reached.
- The blog also addresses the need for change, explains the FCA’s new approach, and how this supports a commitment to better regulation.
- To address the possibility of individual FCA staff-member failure in relation to filing e-mails on time, firms sending anything important to the FCA should ensure that appropriate records are retained and stored safely in case of need.