Top ‘cop’ says goodbye

The announcement that Margaret Cole, head of the City regulator’s enforcement division, is leaving, has sent shockwaves through the sector.

Ms Cole’s assertive style, some may even say aggressive, as head of the division has divided opinion about her effectiveness. Some say she has brought enforcement to the fore, while others believe she has been too uncompromising.

But, to her fans, she is arguably one of very few success stories at the FSA.

The former commercial lawyer has departed after seven years at the City regulator - with infamous yet debated success in nailing a host of insider dealings criminal convictions.

Many believed Ms Cole would have succeeded Hector Sants to head the new Financial Conduct Authority, while Mr Sants goes off to head the Prudential Regulatory Authority, part of the Bank of England.

But in February last year, it was announced Martin Wheatley had pipped her to the post. He took on the role of new managing director of the consumer and markets business unit.

By April, Ms Cole had accepted a position as temporary head of the new conduct business unit and remained in the role until Mr Wheatley jumped into the driving seat on 1 September last year.

According to a former FSA manager, in one of eight teams in its enforcement division, Ms Cole had very much thrown her hat into the ring for the FCA position and was consequently was “very disappointed” when Hong Kong’s chief executive of securities and futures commission was favoured over her.

Mr Wheatley’s background features various roles including deputy chief executive of the London Stock Exchange Group and sitting on the FSA’s Listing Authority Advisory Committee.

Greg Brandman, partner in the litigation department at City law firm Eversheds, left the FSA last October.

He said: “It was not a surprise at all. I have recently come back into law practice after working in the FSA and I have worked with Ms Cole. She was quite disappointed not to get the job but graciously took the transition role. She was clearly interested in taking the role and once it was clear she had not got it she did not want to come back and report to Mr Wheatley.”

The feeling in the FSA at the time of Mr Wheatley’s appointment, he added, was that sooner or later she would move on. In Mr Brandman’s view, and he is not alone, the loss of Ms Cole will be a “big blow” for the FSA given her transformation of a unit that seemed to have been underperforming.

Mr Brandman said: “If you compare it to other divisions in the FSA, Ms Cole has probably turned the enforcement supervision into the most respected part of the FSA. But how the new regulator will form and how it will be moving forward now is an unknown. It will be a massive challenge to pull it all together.”