By Ian Phoenix
LONDON, England – The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) hit the news last week amidst criticism about our plans to delete emails held in staff inboxes after a year. As director of intelligence and digital at the FCA, I want to explain what we’re doing and why.
First, what we’re not doing. We’re not deleting evidence. We’re not hiding information. We’re not reducing transparency. There is no change to our policy of what constitutes a record and how long it should be saved for.
What we are doing is modernising how we manage our records to make us a more efficient and effective regulator. Many of our records are already stored in a secure, shared repository. We want to make sure the same goes for all emails which may be records, for example, those which explain how a particular decision was reached. These need to be saved centrally so they can be accessed if we need to find the information in response to a request.
That’s why 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 email are a record and – if they are – save them to the central shared drive.
The need for change
The changes we are making will help us comply with our obligations under GDPR and the Data Protection Act, so that we aren’t retaining information for too long. But, just as importantly, it will help us to improve how we use data so that we can work smarter.
Put simply, it’s about being better organised in an increasingly digital world. Email is one of our biggest sources of information – but our inboxes can also accumulate lots of non-essential items. We currently have over 70 million emails stored in FCA inboxes. To put that into perspective, if each email was printed on a single sheet of paper and stacked, the pile would be over seven kilometres high – taller than 20 Shard buildings stacked on top of each other.
Searching through this volume of emails is like trying to find a specific grain of sand on a beach. Yes, AI tools can help with tasks like this, but we believe it’s still to everyone’s advantage to further embed best practice record management.
Our new approach
Moving information to where it can be better managed, searched and retrieved will make it far easier and quicker to locate historical information when we need it. Instead of spending hours digging through personal inboxes, staff will be able to search by keyword in a central digital archive. This means faster information retrieval, and ultimately, more effective regulation.
We have also built in safeguards. Our essential operational processes run through shared mailboxes, which remain out of scope of the new policy. If a certain case requires it, then select staff will also have access to deleted emails for an extended period.
Critics have suggested we’re holding ourselves to a different standard than the firms we regulate. This isn’t the case. We expect firms to take their record keeping obligations seriously and, as the regulator, we do too. Regulatory records will still be kept for 25 years. Of course, change can be challenging, so we’re putting in a range of support for staff, from detailed guidance to practical workshops. We’re committed to getting this right, so we will be closely reviewing how it’s working, adapting our approach and supporting staff as needed.
A commitment to better regulation
In my years at the FCA, I’ve seen first-hand how delays in information retrieval can impede decision-making. This policy is designed to help prevent those delays, improving our ability to swiftly identify and respond to emerging harms.
I’m confident in our new approach because I’ve seen the rigorous work and testing behind it. More than that, I know from experience that when we have the right tools in place, we can focus on what really matters: building a more responsive, agile and data-driven FCA, which delivers for the good of consumers and the economy.
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