Compliance costs rose in the United Kingdom with the introduction of a super-regulator reports the U.K.’s Financial Services Authority.

The FSA has published a report by independent consultancy Europe Economics that examines costs for financial firms in complying with the FSA regulatory regime.

The report concludes that compliance costs have risen since the FSA took on its full responsibilities as a single regulator a year and a half ago. It also considers ways in which firms can reduce their compliance costs in future.

Canadian regulators, politicians and industry players are currently mulling over regulatory reform, including the creation of a single, national security commission.

FSA chairman Howard Davies said, “We accept that compliance costs have risen in the last few years — however the Europe Economics survey finds that, in spite of that increase, compliance costs as a proportion of firms‚ operating costs are significantly lower than indicated in earlier industry surveys.”

“The Europe Economics Report shows that some of the identified increase relates to one-off work involved in moving to the new regulatory system at a time when there was naturally some unfamiliarity with it on both sides — and we expect these costs to drop away over time,” he continued.

“Firms particularly report high costs in complying with anti-money laundering requirements. This is an area in which the requirements are driven by U.K. and European Union law rather than FSA regulations.”