Andrew Bailey has been revealed as the new chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). So what do we know about him, and how could that shape his leadership of the regulator?
Andrew Bailey is a company man. He has spent three decades working at the Bank of England (BoE), climbing his way up to become deputy governor and head of the Prudential Regulatory Authority (PRA).
He puts a lot of stock in the 321-year-old institution, in a way he does not with ever-changing financial services regulators.
"You could have had the Archangel Gabriel running the FSA but it was only a 15-year-old institution. It hadn't got [the Bank's] standing," he told the London Evening Standard in 2014.
His stance represents his experience. Since starting at the Bank in 1985, he has seen five successive financial services regulatory regimes; from the Securities and Investments Board to the FCA.
But what of his own track record, as head of the body set up after the financial crisis to rein in the banks whose excessive risk-taking caused it? Has he been tough but fair, or limp and lagging?
The answer is up for debate.
Banker's bonuses
After the PRA's intervention, bankers' bonuses - which helped drive the risk taking, and have been a key battleground between regulators, the government, the financial sector and the public post-crisis - fell to their lowest proportion of total pay in a decade last year, according to the FT.
Still, European Banking Authority figures have shown that more finance workers in London took €1m or more in bonuses in 2015 than any other in the continent.
The BoE said earlier this month that it wants banks to be able to claw back their employees' bonuses even after they've moved to a new company.
"Today's proposals seek to ensure that individuals are not rewarded for bad practice or wrong-doing and should help to encourage a culture within firms where reward better reflects the risks being taken," Bailey told CityAm.
Scrapped investigation
Yet a controversial decision by the FCA to drop its investigation into the culture at the UK's biggest banks was overseen by a BoE official, the FT revealed earlier this month. The move by the FCA raised questions of political meddling and pressure from the Treasury in the working of the independent statutory body.
The Bank official joined the FCA just before Martin Wheatley, who was widely held to be no pushover, was forced out of his role as FCA chief executive after the Chancellor George Osborne refused to support his continued place in position.
Financial advisers - who have been subject to a series of FCA reviews into their culture, as well as far-reaching regulation to improve standards such as the Retail Distribution Review - were among those to cry foul at the decision.
Bosses' accountability
Another criticism is that the Bank and PRA backed down on rules to make bank heads more accountable, by scrapping a rule that would require bosses to prove they had done the right thing. Instead, the onus is on the regulator to prove the case against bank chiefs.
Bailey defended the U-turn by saying the planned new rules could have breached European human rights regulations, according to the Guardian.
Advisers may welcome the backtracking, however - they too will be included under the same new senior manager regime from 2018.
Advisers may also rejoice at Bailey's seeming concern over regulatory costs, telling the Evening Standard: "If I'm honest with you, it's the conduct costs that are the most difficult thing in the current environment. It does concern me it is so difficult to predict the evolution of these costs - except directionally they are always upwards."
The New City Initiative, an association of boutique asset management firms, has come out to say it approves of Bailey's appointment, so long as he "recognise[s] the significant contribution these firms make to the UK and work to foster a culture in which they can flourish".
It is a demand that will likely be echoed by advisers.
It is also code for light touch regulation, which many have blamed for failing to foresee the financial crisis and widespread mis-selling scandals.
His mindfulness of the reputational importance of his current employer is maybe the best guide we have for Bailey's stewardship of the FCA, in that he will not want to bring that sort of embarrassment to his new role.
Even if it is a few centuries shy of the Bank's standing.
