The FCA has apologised following the Davis report into the leaking of a report to a Telegraph journalist.
The response comes following the FCA's publication of a report into the incident earlier this year, when the FCA briefed a national newspaper on its plans to review long-term insurance contracts.
John Griffith-Jones, chairman of the FCA said: "Simon Davis has produced a comprehensive and rigorous report in which he makes a number of criticisms of the way the FCA handled the launch of the 2014-15 Business Plan. The Board fully accepts Mr Davis' criticisms and on behalf of the FCA we apologise for the mistakes that were made and the shortcomings in systems and controls which his report has revealed.
"Mr Davis also makes a number of recommendations about changes to our systems, processes and ways of working. We accept all of his recommendations and I can confirm that we are now implementing them.
"The FCA Non-Executive Directors would like to thank Simon Davis for his thorough investigation. As a regulator we hold ourselves to the highest standards and in this case we fell short. I am determined the FCA will learn the lessons and we will do our utmost to ensure that a situation like this will never happen again."
Otto Thoresen, director general Association of British Insurers (ABI), said:"We welcome the publication of Simon Davis' Inquiry into the FCA's handling of publicity surrounding their Business Plan earlier this year.
"There are comprehensive FCA rules about the treatment of market-sensitive information, and it is important for the confidence of the markets that it should always be treated with the utmost care.
"The ABI is committed to a good working relationship with our regulators and we respect the regulators' need to make sound judgements without undue interference. We also welcome the fact that the FCA has worked hard to keep communications open with the insurance industry and hope that this will continue.
"We make every effort to ensure the necessary flow of information between the regulator and the regulated, and we will continue to work hard to deliver our part in that essential dialogue in the future."
Andrew Tyrie MP, chairman of the Treasury Committee, said:"The Davis report tells the story of an FCA pursuing the wrong strategy in the wrong way. The catalogue of errors made across the organisation is shocking - and some of the errors went to the top.
"The FCA Board originally intended to hold an internal inquiry, with some ‘external support'. This was plainly unacceptable - the regulator could not be permitted to investigate its own misconduct. I immediately pressed, on behalf of the Treasury Committee, for a fully independent inquiry led by a demonstrably impartial figure. It is now abundantly clear that this was needed.
"The FCA has fallen well below the standards it requires of the firms it regulates. Mr Davis has concluded that the body comprising the UK listing authority, in premeditated briefing, created a false market-causing considerable market uncertainty, worry for many consumers and some lasting damage.
"The Committee will, among many other things, examine whether these errors were a one-off or whether they reveal something amiss, perhaps seriously amiss, with the standards and culture of the FCA. We will also examine remedies, both those proposed or already announced, and others."
