The Financial Conduct Authority is expecting 200 new joiners in the first quarter of the year and promises "one of the best" employment packages, amid staff voting in favour of strike action.
Speaking at The Future of UK Financial Regulation Summit today (February 8), Sarah Pritchard, executive director of markets at the FCA, said the regulator had grown its team as it looked to strengthen capital markets.
Pritchard said: “We will be continuing to build our team of people. Job vacancies at the end of the last year in the UK were at a record high.
“We are fortunate that our turnover has remained in line with pre-pandemic levels – and with new roles created through transformation you will see us continuing to hire at pace, attracting highly talented colleagues from private sector, public sectors and other regulators too.”
It comes as the FCA’s Unite members voted ‘yes’ in support of industrial action against the regulator's proposed cuts to pay and conditions last week.
Unite, the union which represents staff at the regulator, said members voted by 87 per cent in favour of strike action in its non-binding ballot, which closed on January 31.
The union said unless a negotiated settlement is reached, Unite can now proceed to a full industrial action ballot.
Key concerns by staff included the loss of routine payments labelled ‘bonuses’ which represented 10 to 12 per cent of salary, the narrowing of pay bands, lower pay bands for Scottish staff, cuts affecting graduate trainees, and a threat of future cuts to pensions.
Other concerns included a perceived unfair appraisal system and a high level of pay inequality, which Unite said was “unusually high by the standards of public sector regulators”.
However, in today’s speech, Pritchard promised staff one of the best employment packages of any regulator.
“As we evolve to become more innovative, assertive and adaptive, will continue to offer one of the best, if not best, employment package of any UK enforcement agency or regulator and we look forward to continuing to build our people capabilities and our organisation as a whole by recruiting diverse talent, and supporting career growth of our existing colleagues," Pritchard said.
She said there are 200 new joiners to the FCA in the first quarter of this year, with 60 of these having joined this month and similar numbers expected in the coming months.
Over the past quarter, a number of senior leaders joined the regulator including government lawyer and litigator Stephen Braviner Roman who joined as the FCA’s new general counsel.
The regulator’s interim general counsel David Scott is staying on part time for the transition and Miles Bake is the FCA’s new director of governance, joining from the Bank of England.
The FCA also appointed Amit Shanker as its new head of digital and intelligence. He was previously chief data officer at JLL and head of digital transformation at HSBC.
Pritchard said the regulator is recruiting for new senior leaders across supervision, competition and policy, enforcement and a new finance director will be announced shortly too.
“Within the broader organisation we are moving to recruiting campaign style, to ensure we can regularly bring in and attract talent in London, Edinburgh, and Leeds," she said.
“We have completed the bolstering of our authorisations team, with 95 new colleagues joining to help ensure our gateway is robust, to speed up our authorisations processes and to support new, innovative firms – the gateway plays a key role in supporting a competitive financial system.”
Pritchard said the FCA is also making “major strides” towards diversity targets with 47 percent of its senior leadership team being female as of end-January, with a 50 percent target by 2025.
She explained this is up from 43 percent this time last year and at least 15 percent now from an ethnic minority.
FCA’s role
In her speech, she also discussed aspects of the FCA’s transformation programme and vision for the future.
She said the regulator understands that in order to be innovative and adaptive, it needs to stay on top of the changes driven by technology, innovation, and climate change - and reflect those considerations in the regulatory agenda.
“In doing so, we will need to work with government partners, other regulators and industry (both through our statutory panels, individually and via trade associations) to inform our rules, so that we can ensure that they will deliver the outcomes that are needed to protect consumers, and ensure a well-functioning market,” she said.
Since setting out the vision, Pritchard said the FCA has announced that the regulatory sandbox will be permanent so it can offer services to enable new market entrants a chance to test out their ideas in real world scenarios.
“In October we finalised rules for a new type of fund designed to invest efficiently in long term assets – setting rules for a Long Term Asset Fund which should help support investment in assets such as infrastructure and private equity.
“And in December, we confirmed a series of rule changes to the listings regime, so that UK public markets remain an attractive and trusted place to list companies – supporting growth and innovation.”
Pritchard said the FCA is being more assertive, having made changes to its decision making processes such as moving decisions into the line and publishing more consumer warnings.
“We have had our first successful prosecution under the money laundering regulations against Natwest Bank, for failing to have adequate money laundering systems and controls. And we continue to take a tough approach at the gateway for cryptoasset firms which need registration under the money laundering regime – with those firms so far falling short at a significantly higher rate than others.
"We are running a 'use it or lose it' pilot, seeking to remove permissions from those firms who do not use them."
She added: “It is fair to say people do not typically think of a regulator as innovative or particularly adaptive – but that is our vision.
“As the FCA gains new responsibilities for rule-making, we also recognise that accountability is an important topic. We will continue to be guided by our statutory objectives, subject to governance and, of course, accountable to Parliament. “
sonia.rach@ft.com
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