Fiction, Sport, Regulation
Across my 27 years working for the UK's financial regulators, I spent nine years at the Bank of England, fifteen at the FSA and three at the FCA.
For the first 12 years (1989-2001) I was a banking supervisor - analysing both UK banks and overseas ones that had a UK presence. Then I moved into various central functions - loosely centred around strategy, planning and risk management - that gave me a rare overview of how regulatory authorities actually work (and sometimes don't), while keeping me a half a step removed from the front line.
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Regulation tends to hit the public consciousness only for the wrong reasons. Most obviously during these years, there was the failure of Northern Rock and the financial crisis that followed, but BCCI, Barings, Equitable Life and the FCA's disclosure of market sensitive information in 2014 are all worth a mention. Most recently, there has been the 2019 failure of London Capital & Finance.
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However, regulation is only part of the much bigger story of how UK plc manages the financial risks of its economy and citizens. My posts on LinkedIn are an attempt to unravel the various roles it plays in this.
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