The Treasury Committee has given Andrew Bailey the green light to take over as the next governor of the Bank of England but has warned it will be watching the regulator closely.
Bailey’s appointment, which has been met with scorn from industry campaigners and created rifts in Boris Johnson’s cabinet, was unanimously approved by the committee on Thursday.
The day before Bailey was being grilled by MPs over a series of high-profile failures that happened on his watch, including the collapse of Woodford Investment Management and the London Capital and Finance mini-bond scandal, which naysayers said should disqualify him for the top job at the central bank.
His performance was slammed by one of his fiercest critics, Gina Miller, who accused Bailey of obfuscation and refusing to take ownership of his failures since taking the helm of the City watchdog in 2016.
Serious concerns over the FCA
While the committee gave Bailey the go ahead to take over from Mark Carney on 16 March, it also issued a caveat to the FCA, stating it had “serious concerns about the culture of the operations of the FCA and the industry it regulates”.
“The Treasury Committee has approved Andrew Bailey’s appointment, but it has also raised a number of serious concerns regarding the performance of the FCA both before and during his time as its CEO,” chair of the Treasury Committee Mel Stride said in a statement.
“Many of these concerns – specifically around culture, transparency and insufficient speed of action – will remain a key focus for the committee.
“The committee is clear that it has an important role in improving the performance of the FCA. We will be holding a rigorous pre-appointment hearing with the new CEO to consider further the issues raised in yesterday’s session.”
