The UK’s Financial Services Authority today confirmed it will freeze hiring and relent from pursuing fresh regulatory initiatives for the coming year in light of the tough economic conditions, focusing instead on influencing the international reform agenda and implementing UK reforms already underway.

Hector Sants, chief executive of the FSA, wrote in the overview of the regulator's business plan for 2011/2012 that the regulator was "mindful of the economic climate and are controlling our costs accordingly".