The Economic Crime Agency will be formed from elements of the Serious Fraud Office, Financial Services Authority and the Office of Fair Trading and will have a remit to persue those who are guilty of so called ‘white-collar crimes’.

While this is a good move in order to ensure those in positions of responsibility in the economy are kept from abusing their powers, it remains to be seen how exactly this new agency will differ from the old setup in terms of regulatory powers and ability to prosecute those accused of wrongdoing.

Apparently some £30 billion worth of financial services related crime is committed each year, with everyone losing out from taxpayers to pension savers. Even though there are multiple agencies in existence to combat and prosecute against this crime the Tories claim that they are not doing their job well enough. Their plan involves scrapping most of these agencies and regulatory bodies to be replaced with a single entity, responsible for ensuring economic crime is prevented and appropriately punished when it does happen.