To delete or not delete (emails) - that is the thorny question the FCA has had to face and a move which forced one of its senior execs to defends its email deletion plans this week.

The FCA came in for stick recently for disclosing that it would delete routine emails from April.

This was mainly to meet GDPR requirements not to keep emails and other information longer than was necessary, but also to keep on top of a mountain of 70m emails stored on its servers.

I suspect many firms are wrestling with these very issues of what to keep and what to delete, when it comes to electronic information, so the FCA is not alone on this. GDPR has forced financial firms to review their policies to avoid leaving huge amounts of information lying around indefinitely with no purpose.

Emails are, of course, a modern burden in many ways. I seem to spend half my life deleting old emails. They can also be vitally important to communication, of course.

One of the criticisms of the new FCA email deletion policy was that the FCA was holding itself to different standards than it does regulated firms. Giving itself permission to delete millions of emails but asking regulated firms to keep hold of theirs.

In a blog issued this week, Ian Phoenix, FCA director, intelligence and digital, denied this and emphatically denied any accusations that the FCA is trying to hide evidence and avoid scrutiny.

It’s worth pointing out here that the FCA is planning to delete only routine stuff that arrives in inboxes, message from colleagues for example asking if someone wants to pop out for a coffee, that sort of stuff, along with non-essential emails. It wants staff to ask whether they need to keep emails older than 12 months in future, a more active email management policy if you like.

Key regulatory emails and information will still be stored, for at least 25 years and there are back ups maintaining copies of deleted emails.

The FCA currently has millions of staff emails stored in FCA inboxes and much of the information is of "low value," he said. No guffawing at the back please.

‘Essential’ operational processes which run through shared mailboxes will remain out of scope of the new policy, he said.

He added that criticism the FCA was applying different standards to itself than it does to regulated firms was wrong.

He said: “Critics have suggested we’re holding ourselves to a different standard than the firms we regulate. This isn't the case. We expect firms to take their record keeping obligations seriously and, as the regulator, we do too."

One thing he did promise to do was keep the policy under review.

Of course, all firms are now subject to the GDPR and other data protection policies. This makes the new world of data management a little more difficult to navigate.

Mr Phoenix’s explanation of the changes seems sound enough and many will understand the change and sympathise with it. Presumably regulated firms can adopt a similar strategy but that’s one for the FCA to confirm.

In the meantime it’s a good reminder that the management and protection of emails and other data in a digital world is becoming increasingly important and is clearly a sensitive topic.

• To be sent a link to view the latest issue of Financial Planning Today magazine (new issue out now) make sure you register for Financial Planning Today website if you are not already registered. 

Kevin O’Donnell is editor of Financial Planning Today and a journalist with 40 years of experience in finance, business and mainstream news. This topical comment on the Financial Planning news appears most weeks, usually on Fridays but occasionally other days.  Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Follow @FPT_Kevin 

>Top Tip: Follow me on Twitter / X at @FPT_Kevin for breaking news and key updates