Apr 14 2009 Joanne Wallen Complinet exclusive
The Financial Services Authority has moved retail firms director Sheila Nicoll across to replace Dan Waters as director of retail policy. Amid press reports last week that the FSA was undergoing a significant internal reshuffle, it appeared that Waters' move to head the new conduct risk division would leave a vacancy over at retail policy. If there is a vacancy to fill at all then it will be for the role of director of retail firms.
Industry watchers were hoping that someone from the industry might have filled the retail policy role rather than an internal FSA candidate. An FSA spokesman played down the significance of the changes. He told Complinet that these were simply internal moves that were needed to accommodate the new conduct risk division.
As Complinet reported in an article in the February Informer magazine, the conduct risk division has been around since the end of last year in embryonic form and Waters previously looked after both retail policy and conduct risk. The conduct risk department aims to put FSA supervisors closer to "the coal face" of firms.
Nicoll has been director of retail firms since October 2007. She replaced Sarah Wilson in the role when Wilson became sector head for insurance. Nicoll originally reported to Clive Briault, who left the FSA after the Northern Rock crisis. Wilson, who also headed the treating customers fairly initiative, resigned last month.
Prior to joining the FSA Nicoll was deputy director general of the Investment Management Association, which she joined in 1992 when it was the Association of Unit Trusts and Investment Funds. Prior to that she spent 10 years at the London Stock Exchange, where she became head of international relations.
