The Financial Services Authority's (FSA) role in tackling financial crime is not just enforcement and prosecutions, said Margaret Cole, the director of its financial crime and enforcement division.

"Much of what we do is less glamorous and doesn't always grab the headline, but is of vital importance," she told the British Bankers' Association, an industry group, in London last Thursday.

The FSA's work can be divided into two functions, she said. As the gatekeeper of the UK financial system, the