FSA reorganises its divisions to fight risk better

Focusing on macro-prudential issues, as part of the FSA reorganisation, will be David Strachan’s enlarged financial stability team, with Margaret Cole in charge of the newly integrated enforcement and financial crime team. The Financial Capability division will move from the existing Retail business unit to become a standalone division, under director Chris Pond and will report directly to Hector Sants. This will put the FSA in a better position to take forward the national rollout of the Money Guidance service, as announced in the 2009 Budget.

The thorough reorganisation at the FSA takes account of the changing role of the UK watchdog in respect of increased international regulatory engagement after the banking crisis of last year, extra macro-prudential analysis and an enlarged consumer financial education role handed to it by the UK government. The changes will take effect from 1 October and will conclude the significant internal reforms the FSA has undertaken during the last two years, incorporating the lessons learned from the financial meltdown, the Northern Rock internal review and the priorities outlined in the Turner Review.

Hector Sants, FSA chief executive, said: “This new structure completes the radical internal reforms that I initiated when I became CEO in July 2007.

“The new structure will underpin the radical changes we have made to our supervisory processes through the Supervisory Enhancement Programme (SEP). SEP was designed to deliver a significant increase in our supervisory resource and changes to the way we work, in particular for ‘high impact’ or systemically important firms. The programme is on track and will be completed by the end of this year."