Major inquiries have been launched into e-commerce and money laundering as part of a shift to "proactive regulation" by the financial services authority. Chairman Howard Davies said yesterday the inquiry's reports would be used as the basis for day-to-day supervision of the City.

Three other inquiries have also begun - into the implications for investors of a low-inflation environment, into after-care for savers and investors and into ways the FSA can provide market incentives for firms to conform with rules and regulations.

The agency is setting up what is in effect an internal ad hoc think tank to guide its enforcement policy. Mr Davies said the pension mis-selling affair was a set-piece example of something that could have been prevented by one of the FSA's new "theme projects".

Denying it would be "an academic body", Mr Davies said the think tank represented "a shift to more front-end activity". He was presenting the FSA's conclusions to a review of the old regulatory system, one crucial finding of which is that there has been too much emphasis on routine surveillance and on reacting to scandals when they occur.

Regarding the inquiry into e-commerce, Mr Davies said the development of investment over the net presented risks, especially in terms of "potential criminal activity".