Sarah Pritchard has been appointed
deputy chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority
(FCA).
The new role has been created to
reflect the FCA's expanding remit, with the integration of the
Payment Systems Regulator, regulation of stablecoin and crypto
firms as well as buy now pay later activities. As deputy chief
executive, Sarah will also support the FCA's increasingly
international focus, given its role supporting UK growth and
competitiveness.
Sarah joined the FCA in June 2021 to
jointly lead the supervision, policy and competition division.
Sarah has most recently been responsible for consumers and
competition, having previously led the FCA's markets
function.
Sarah also has executive
responsibility for the FCA's international work and personally
spearheaded recent G20/Financial Stability Board work on leverage
in non-bank financial
institutions.
, chief executive of the FCA,
said:
“Since joining us, Sarah helped bring together our supervision,
policy and competition functions and has led some of our most
high-profile work, for example the once-in-a-generation overhaul
of the listing rules and landmark work on financial advice and
guidance.
“Delivering our ambitious new strategy – to deepen trust,
rebalance risk, support growth and improve lives – is a
collective endeavour and relies on continued reform. Sarah's
breadth of experience, in both public and private sectors, makes
her ideally placed to help me drive this.”
Ashley Alder, chair of the FCA,
said:
“The international environment is complex, our remit is growing
and expectations of us continue to evolve. The board fully
support Sarah taking on the role of deputy chief executive to
help Nikhil lead the FCA day-to-day and cultivate our key
relationships. Sarah has proven her ability to drive reform and
deliver bold proposals at pace.”
Sarah Pritchard, deputy chief executive of the FCA, said:
“The last 4 years has been marked by significant reform. I am
looking forward to working even more closely with Nikhil so there
is no let up in the pace of change, and to ensure we have the
right relationships, domestically and internationally, to deliver
our ambitious strategy.”
Sarah has already taken up the deputy
chief executive role. There will be no immediate change to her
areas of responsibility.
Notes to
editors
1. Sarah joined the FCA in June 2021. In addition to the
responsibilities detailed above, Sarah is the executive director
sponsor for the FCA's Edinburgh office. Since she joined, the
number of FCA colleagues based in its Edinburgh office has nearly
tripled.
2. Prior to joining the FCA, Sarah was the director of the
National Economic Crime Centre (NECC), a multi-agency partnership
housed in the National Crime Agency (NCA), created in late 2018
to deliver UK system leadership on economic crime. Before then,
she was general counsel/legal director for the NCA as well as
leading the NCA's transformational people programme.
3. Her career has involved investigative, operational and legal
roles in a range of government departments and in the private
sector. Within the private sector, she led global financial crime
compliance and reputational risk teams at HSBC and qualified as a
commercial litigator with Dechert LLP.
