LONDON, June 18 (Reuters) - Britain's retail banks have "gotit" in relation to cultural change and the need to guard againstmisconduct, the chairman of the country's financial regulatorsaid on Thursday.
The industry has been hit by a series of scandals in recentyears, including the mis-selling of loan insurance, which hasalready cost the industry more than 26 billion pounds ($41billion) in compensation, but the chairman of the FinancialConduct Authority said the banks understand the need to change.
"I think the retail banking sector in the UK has really gotit," John Griffith-Jones told the British Bankers Association'sretail banking conference.
"I think every chief executive and chairman wants to improveculture, but it doesn't move overnight, so it's a slightlydangerous situation where, to the outside world, it appearsnothing is happening," he said.
The industry has continued to confront problems in relationto misconduct. Britain's biggest retail bank Lloyds forinstance was fined 117 million pounds by the financial regulatorthis month for failings in the way it handled complaints aboutmis-sold loan insurance.
Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland and HSBC have also been embroiled in various controversiesincluding the mis-selling of complex hedging products to smallbusinesses.($1 = 0.6298 pounds) (Reporting by Matt Scuffham; Editing by David Holmes)