LONDON, Jan 26 Reuters Britain39;s regulators can be slow, inefficient and unpredictable, raising costs and slowly damaging the financial sector39;s global competitiveness, industry body TheCityUK said in a report.

Complex, opaque and slow authorisations, such as for a new chief executive or a new product, can discourage growth and investment, the report published on Thursday said.

It said The Financial Conduct Authority FCA and the Bank of England39;s Prudential Regulation Authority PRA were taking steps to speed up authorisations, but further action was needed.

The report was based on interviews with 20 industry leaders and a survey of 40 firms, with 83 of respondents saying Britain39;s international competitiveness was slowly being damaged by regulatory inefficiencies.

It recommends that regulators are commercially aware of the challenges the firms they regulate are facing, publish better performance data on authorisations, enhance communication with firms, adopt a 39;digitalfirst39; approach and train authorisation staff better.

The UK is one of the world39;s leading international financial centres, but our competitors are biting at our heels. Complacency is not an option, TheCityUK Chief Executive Miles Celic said.

Britain is pushing through many reforms to financial rules to help the City of London remain globally competitive after being largely cut off from the European Union by Brexit, ushering in new competition from centres like Amsterdam and Paris….