The U.K.’s Financial Services Authority says it wants to streamline its regulatory regime in an effort to make London a more attractive global center for international capital. FSA Chief Executive John Tiner told a conference, “The current regulatory architecture is an unhappy alliance of high-level principles, detailed rules and guidance.” Those rules, he says, “sometimes prescribed requirements at a great level of minutiae.”

Tiner notes that the London Stock Exchange is already drawing international companies that might otherwise list in the U.S. because the regulatory requirements in the U.K. are less stringent. The LSE, he says, has taken a more pragmatic approach that focuses on key principles rather than prescriptive rules, Reuters reports.

“I believe this can be reinforced by this change in approach and further consolidate London’s position as the location of choice for international capital.”