After more than three and half years at the helm, Andrew Bailey will become Governor of the Bank of England from 16 March 2020. On Friday last week, it was announced that Christopher Woolard will be appointed Interim Chief Executive of the FCA (he is currently the FCA’s Executive Director of Strategy and Competition). HM Treasury have said that it will be running an open competition for Bailey's permanent replacement and that further details will be announced in due course.
The FCA now regulate c. 58,000 firms, more than double the number regulated by its predecessor the FSA. In a recent interview, Bailey noted that one of the FCA's challenges is adapting to a regulatory landscape of numerous smaller firms, as opposed to the large institutions it is used to regulating. It will be interesting to see how Woolard, and later, any permanent appointee, will meet that challenge, as well as dealing with the consequences and opportunities arising from Brexit (see elsewhere in this issue: FCA Speech on Brexit and the Future of Financial Services Regulation in the UK).