“BRITAIN needs a tough, strong financial-conduct regulator,” said George Osborne, the chancellor of the exchequer, on July 17th as he announced that he had effectively ousted Martin Wheatley, the City’s tough, strong financial-conduct regulator. Financiers quietly toasted the departure of the figure they had come to see as Britain’s bank-basher-in-chief since his appointment in 2013. Whom Mr Osborne selects to replace Mr Wheatley at the helm of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) will be a strong indicator of how much more lenient he is prepared to be towards the country’s bruised bankers.
Regulating conduct in an industry whose behavioural problems rival those of a sugared-up toddler was never going to make Mr Wheatley popular. A mission to go after bad bankers and a self-confessed “shoot first and ask questions later” approach made him few friends in the City. But in the years following the financial crisis his fierce independence appeared to be just what the industry needed—and what the public demanded.
His successes included whacking investment banks for rigging currencies and interest rates, and punishing...Continue reading
via Brian Rushton, Wheatley, cropped
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