In the UK, some lawyers and observers are beginning to believe that the FSA--now slated to be largely disbanded following the victory of the Tory party in the national election--has retreated from the aggressive enforcement it demonstrated in 2009 and in early 2010. Today's news that Malcolm Calvert, a former Cazenove banker convicted of insider trading, has been released from prison after just seven months fueled more discussion about whether the UK has already lost its recent zeal for prosecuting white-collar crime. In March 2010, Calvert was sentenced to 21 months in prison.

"The FSA has no control over sentencing or over when someone convicted of insider trading will be released, but all the same, after just seven months it does give the impression that the authorities are not being that tough on City crimes" said Dan Hyde, a white collar crime specialist at Cubism Law. Hyde told The Independent that "a few months ago, when the FSA was fighting for its existence, there was a stream of cases like this. Now the FSA is to disappear, there seem to be fewer cases – it seems to have taken its foot off the pedal."

An FSA spokesperson, however, says that Calvert's sentence was not light as it also included a £500,000 fine and a lifetime ban from trading. The FSA reports that that it has a full pipeline of insider trading cases currently, with no fewer than 14 people facing court dates.