Alison McHaffie is a partner in CMS Cameron McKenna's Financial Services team. On a regular basis, Alison shares her thoughts with Practical Law Financial Services subscribers on topical developments concerning investigation and enforcement activity in the financial services sector.

In her November 2015 column, Alison discusses the government's decision to replace the controversial "presumption of responsibility" with a statutory "duty of responsibility" requiring senior managers to take reasonable steps to prevent regulatory breaches in their area of responsibility. Alison considers what this means in practice for senior managers and what it signals in terms of regulatory enforcement for the future.