Sants did hatchet job on FSA predecessor: MP

The Conservative MP for Wyre Forest said he and his colleagues were “amazed by the whole spectacle of Hector Sants doing a hatchet job on his predecessors” when the FSA chief executive came before the select committee to be questioned on the regulator’s role in the failure of Royal Bank of Scotland.

Mr Garnier said: “Mr Sants told us that before he took over, the FSA was badly organised and did not know what it was doing. The whole thing was really damning.”

Mr Sants is due to appear before the select committee again in the next six months for an appointment hearing as part of his role as the new chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority.

Mr Garnier said: “When he comes back to the Treasury select committee what I really want to know is if he can demonstrate that he has learned the lessons of the last crisis.”

The select committee is tasked with ensuring that Mr Sants is a suitable person to run the FCA, but does not have a power of veto.

However, Mr Garnier said that while the committee cannot block the appointment, it can make things “uncomfortable” if it believes he is the wrong man for the job.

Despite this, Mr Garnier said Mr Sants “seems to understand the issues” as he had “lived and breathed the financial crisis.”

He said: “Mr Sants has a huge amount of first-hand experience and that has to be valuable.”

Jason Lurie, partner for London-based Holland Hahn & Wills, said: “In my world regulators come and go. As long as they do the right job, I’m happy.”