While it may be too early to determine how Andrew Bailey’s reign will differ from his predecessors, having already overseen the Prudential Regulation Authority since 2013, it’s clear he’s already well-versed in the challenges at hand.
He hasn’t given much away, but we can all take heart in his distancing himself from the “shooting first and asking questions later” philosophy that he clearly believes has been a downfall of previous regulators.
As Geoff Candy wrote on Tuesday, Bailey certainly possesses first-hand knowledge of the complexities of the new financial world order, though of course appeasing the wealth manager and retail investment worlds presents a very different challenge.
According to Colin Lawrence, a former Director of the Risk Specialist Division at the PRA and a senior adviser to the deputy governor of the Bank of England, Bailey has always articulated the view that supervisors must be “forward looking and focus on a few core risk drivers that are relevant rather than collect barrages of irrelevant information”.
These “barrages” are something we could all do with less off. Guy Sears, interim CEO of the Investment Association, which itself has just been restructured, says that last year the body responded to 17 consultations and discussion papers from the FCA alone.
