A timeline of FCA oversight and job changes

With Nikhil Rathi due to start work as chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on Thursday, Peer2Peer Finance has complied a timeline of the regulator’s oversight and major job changes.

December’s regulation

The regulator’s specific peer-to-peer lending regulation has been well-known for a while. In June last year it announced that by December 9 platforms must have implemented more stringent wind-down rules as well as an appropriateness test and marketing restrictions for investors.

Another set of rules came into force that same day – the Senior Managers & Certification Regime (SMCR) – which extends across the entire financial sector and creates a system that enables firms and regulators to hold individuals to account for their actions.

Mini-bond ban

In November last year the FCA introduced a temporary ban for the whole of 2020 on the mass marketing of mini-bonds to retail investors.

This followed concerns that mini-bonds were being promoted to retail investors who neither understood the risks involved, nor could afford the potential financial losses.

This summer, the regulator proposed making the ban permanent.

Covid-19

The City regulator has been quick to announce proposals on payment freezes for borrowers that require it due to the Covid-19 crisis.

Read more: City regulator offers flexibility to firms during the Covid-19 crisis

The FCA has outlined the options available to firms which provide motor finance and pawnbroking services, as well as consumer credit customers.

Some of the options include a further payment deferral or reducing payments to an amount that the customer can afford for a further three months.

Job changes

In December, FCA chief Andrew Bailey, who was in charge during the implementation of December’s P2P rules, was chosen as the next governor of the Bank of England, taking over from the outgoing Mark Carney in March.

FCA executive director of strategy and competition Chris Woolard was then promoted to interim chief executive of the watchdog.

This month the FCA revealed that Woolard is set to move on from the City regulator, after completing a review of the unsecured credit market.

Later this week, Nikhil Rathi, formerly chief executive of the London Stock Exchange, will take over as the FCA’s new chief executive. The 41-year old Oxford graduate previously spent 11 years at the Treasury, and he has been on the board of the FCA’s markets practitioner panel since 2015.