Charles Randell has asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer to commence the process to appoint his successor as Chair of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Payment Systems Regulator (PSR). Charles plans to step down in Spring 2022.

Under Charles’s leadership as Chair, the FCA has established a significant multi-year transformation programme to become a more proactive, data-led and forward-looking regulator. The FCA has successfully transitioned to a new executive team, which is rolling out detailed strategies to support its transformation.

During this period, the FCA also supported the UK’s departure from the EU with minimal disruption to financial services, supported consumers and businesses through the pandemic, and is now playing a key role in ensuring financial markets support the transition to a low-carbon economy.

Over the same period, the PSR significantly improved protections to prevent payment scams, including introducing the Confirmation of Payee. This year, the PSR proposed a strategy designed to make sure payment systems work well for the long-term and set out its interim findings in a competition case in the pre-paid cards market.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, commented:

“I want to thank Charles Randell for his work as Chairman of both the Financial Conduct Authority and the Payment Systems Regulator during this important period.

“Both organisations undertake a vital role in ensuring that the UK financial markets work well, protecting the interests of consumers, promoting effective competition, and enhancing the integrity of the UK financial system. Charles has led both Boards during the UK’s transition to our new position outside the EU, through the vital economic response to the COVID-19 pandemic and supporting the important transition following Nikhil Rathi’s arrival as new CEO of the FCA.”

Charles Randell commented:

“As the FCA prepares to implement its new wholesale, retail and data strategies under an established new executive, now is the right time for a new Chair to carry on the close and continuous oversight of our transformation.

“During the pandemic, the FCA stood up for consumers and businesses, while the markets we oversee proved resilient, laying the foundations for record capital raising to support the recovery.

“The PSR has been working to ensure payment systems – the lifeblood of the economy – work well for all.

“Being Chair of the FCA and PSR has been a great privilege.”

 

 Notes for editors

  1. Letters between Charles Randell and Chancellor Rishi Sunak.
  2. The Financial Conduct Authority is an independent body, accountable to HM Treasury and to Parliament. The Chair of the Financial Conduct Authority is appointed by HM Treasury; the Chair of the Payment Systems Regulator is appointed by the FCA with the approval of HM Treasury. Charles Randell was appointed Chair of both bodies in April 2018.
  3. The PSR is the UK's economic regulator for payment systems and is the first regulator of its kind in the world. The Chair of the PSR Board is appointed by FCA Board, with the approval of HM Treasury.
  4. Charles Randell took up his role as Chair of the FCA and PSR Boards in April 2018. The term for the appointment was five years.
  5. Charles Randell will not be moving to any other position.
  6. Charles was a partner at law firm Slaughter and May from 1989 to 2013. He specialised in corporate finance law, and worked on financial stability and bank restructuring assignments, in particular during the global financial crisis. He was a member of the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Committee from April 2013 to March 2018 and a Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy between 2016 and 2018.