It took four and a half years for Gordon Brown to realise his ambition of forging a single statutory financial services regulator. The end result was a sweeping modernisation of the UK's oversight of the industry, which was first outlined by the then Chancellor of the Exchequer when Labour came to power in 1997.

The Financial Services Authority originally came into existence in October that year, replacing the Securities and Investments Board, and the following summer it assumed responsibility for banking supervision from the Bank of England.