Davis report: FCA chief Martin Wheatley in the firing line after publication of review into regulator’s newspaper leak
Martin Wheatley, head of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), is expected to face questions over his future today after the publication of a report into the regulator’s leak of price sensitive information concerning life insurers.
Wheatley, who famously said his strategy was to shoot first and ask questions later when it comes to regulating the City’s financial services sector, is expected to be in the line of fire himself today after the publication of what is likely to be a damning report.
In the past few days, the FCA has already announced the departure of the well-respected Clive Adamson, its director of supervision, and Zitah McMillan, its communications director.
Sources said that although Adamson is criticised in the report, he was not the person who gave the interview that prompted share prices in leading insurers to plummet the following day.
Adamson, who is said to have strongly disagreed with Wheatley’s confrontational approach to regulation, told the organisation of his desire to leave last Wednesday.
The regulator was publicly reprimanded by chancellor George Osborne earlier this year for causing chaos in financial markets with a bungled briefing to one newspaper. “We’d have been put in jail for something like this,” one insurance executive said this week.