Christopher Woolard to Serve as UK FCA’s Interim CEO

UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the primary regulatory body has recently made the announcement of appointment of new interim CEO – Chief Executive Officer. The move was made by Her Majesty’s Treasury following the advice of the Board of the Financial Conduct Authority as its current Chief Executive Officer Mr. Andrew Bailey moves on take charge of his new role as Governor of Bank of England. As per statement released by the watchdog, its Chief Executive Officer role will be filled in the interim capacity by Mr. Christopher Woolard who is currently serving as FCA’s Executive Director of Strategy and Competition and an Executive Member of the FCA’s Board. As Executive Director of Strategy and Competition, Chris is responsible for FCA’s policy output, work on innovation, competition and economics. He is also responsible for helping direct the watchdog’s strategy for financial regulation.

Christopher began his term with the UK’s finan

cial regulatory body in 2013 as one of its founding members and had continued to play a major role in leading the regulatory body from its early days and has continued to serve in key senior level management and leadership role till date. Aside from his c-level roles at UK FCA, Mr. Woolard also continues to serve as Non-Executive Director for Payment Systems Regulator, an independent subsidiary of FCA since its founding in April of 2014. Prior to joining FCA, Mr. Woolard served under several industry leading firms in UK for nearly two decade. His most recent role before joining FCA was under Ofcom – a London headquartered financial service provider where he served in capacity of Group Director for content, international and regulatory development. Prior to his stint with Ofcom, he served as Deputy Director for BBC Trust for nearly 4 years.

Post graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in History from Kings College in London he began his career serving as a Senior Civil Servant in UK’s Department of Trade and Industry where he spent the first decade of his career. Christopher will continue to hold the role of interim Chief Executive Officer until an actual successor is chosen for the role. As per FCA’s update, the CEO candidate for FCA will be selected from an open competition the details of which is expected to be announced later this year. The open competition will be run by HM Treasury who will then appoint the CEO candidate once the competition concludes.

Commenting on the appointment of interim CEO, Charles Randell – Chairman of FCA said, “I’m looking forward to working with Chris in his Interim Chief Executive role. I’m confident that he and Executive Committee colleagues will continue to deliver our ambitious plans for change in 2020 and beyond, building on the foundations laid by Andrew Bailey”.

Speaking about his new role, Mr. Woolard stated, “I’m delighted that I’ve been asked to take on this role. We have a huge job to do and I’m looking forward to working with the Board and colleagues across the FCA as we continue to deliver the FCA’s mission”.