The Financial Conduct Authority and the Payment Systems Regulator have unveiled new members of their various committees.
These include the appointment of Chris Cummings as a member of the FCA’s Regulatory Decisions Committee and the PSR’s Enforcement Decisions Committee.
The founding chief executive of TheCityUK launched two trade associations in the financial advice sector and has written two books on financial services regulation.
During his time as director general of the Association of Professional Financial Advisers’ predecessor Aifa, Mr Cummings regularly questioned the fairness of IFAs picking up the regulatory tab for mistakes made by banks and insurers.
Speaking back in 2010, he revealed to Financial Adviser that he was concerned about the approach taken by the FCA’s predecessor the FSA to enforcement.
“Any organisation that finds its future cast in doubt will want to prove it is capable and competent, so will seek out opportunities to highlight how vigorous it can be,” he commented at the time. “But I do not approve of shock and awe enforcement. The notion that you can punish an industry into observing regulatory standards is misconceived at best.”
The four regulatory committees whose line-ups were revealed today are responsible for taking certain regulatory decisions on behalf of the FCA and PSR, with members drawn from across a spectrum of business, consumer and industry experience.
Tim Parkes will become chair of the RDC and EDC in January 2016.
He has been a partner at global law firm Herbert Smith Freehills for more than 28 years, after serving 10 years as an associate and clerk.
Elizabeth France has been appointed as a deputy chair of the RDC and EDC. She is already chair of the Security Industry Authority, the Police Advisory Board for England and Wales, a member of the British Transport Police Authority.
John Hull will become a deputy chair of the RDC in next January and has almost twenty years’ experience as a partner at two international law firms, along with being chair of the London Litigation Department, which led the firm’s London banking litigation practice.
Kevin Brown has been appointed as a member of the RDC and EDC, and is currently a non-executive chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland in Luxembourg.
Caroline Ramsay, a chartered accountant with 20 years’ experience in insurance and investment management has been appointed as a member of the RDC and EDC.
Other members of the EDC and CDC are Jonathan Haskel, professor of economics at Imperial College Business School; Stuart McIntosh, an economist with extensive experience in regulation and competition economics; Robin Mason, pro-vice-chancellor at the University of Exeter; and Malcolm Nicholson, a partner at Slaughter and May up until his retirement in 2009.
ruth.gillbe@ft.com
