Ninety-Five Per Cent Of FCA Staff Used To Work At FSA – But FCA Insists It Will Act Differently

Some 95% of FCA staff previously worked for the FSA, new figures reveal.

And 95% at head of department level and above previously formed part of the FSA as of 30 April.

The figures were disclosed in a freedom of information request to Graham Senior-Milne, a former internal auditor at Lloyds TSB and Scottish Widows turned whistleblower.

Last month, a poll by Biba revealed that three quarters of brokers believe the FCA is a rebranded version of the FSA with the same people and policies.

Milne said the continuity of staff showed the new regulator was “nothing more than a superficial exercise” that would allow the organisation to respond to future complaints by saying “that wasn’t us, it was the predecessor body”.

But an FCA spokesman said the regulator had a “much clearer and sharper focus to protect consumers”.

“We’ve been charged with being more pro-active and prevenatative than was the case under the previous regime. It’s considerably different to what went before.”

FCA chief executive Martin Wheatley, who was previously managing director of the FSA’s conduct business unit, told last month’s Biba conference the regulator would take early and decisive action when it suspected wrongdoing.