According to their website, their job is to regulate the UK financial services industry. They get their powers from the government under the Financial Service and Markets Act of 2000, and they should set up and enforce the rules under which the stock exchange, financial firms and similar organizations operate. Their four main objectives are to promote confidence in the UK financial system, to maintain stability in the markets, to protect consumers' rights and to reduce financial crime.

However, there have been a number of complaints that the FSA doesn't always do its job; especially, in recent years it has been said that they should have taken more action to protect consumers over the mis-selling by firms of so called 'payment protection insurance'. The FSA was slow to act over this, though it is now taking a more active approach and urging firms to contact customers who may have been misled in this way, even if they haven't complained yet.