FSA's Cole should have been FCA chief, says Leadsom
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Treasury select committee member Andrea Leadsom believes Margaret Cole, the director at the FSA, should have been appointed Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) chief executive to help remedy the lack of women in top UK financial roles.
Andrea Leadsom
At a committee hearing with the FSA last week, Leadsom attacked the fact there are no women at the helm of the FSA, the FCA, the Bank of England or the UK’s four biggest banks.
Speaking to Money Marketing, Fundweb’s sister publication, she says that Cole, the interim managing director of the FSA conduct of business unit, should have been made chief executive over Martin Wheatley to redress the imbalance.
She says: “There is no one at the top of the new or the old regulators or the biggest banks and this is a serious point.
“In committee, Margaret was a lot more assertive and opinionated that Martin. The others deferred to her on detail and she knew her stuff. I understand she went for the job, so she gets my vote.”
The FSA’s board has five women and 10 men.
No women sit on the monetary policy committee or the interim financial policy committee within the bank, and one woman sits on its court.
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Readers' comments (1)
Stephen Cooper | 10 Nov 2011 5:07 pm
Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!
Margaret Cole should only have been made FCA Chief if she was the best person for the job and for no other reason. If Ms Leadsom really believes that Ms Cole was the best person for the job (and she may well be right) she should take it up with whoever was in charge of the appointment, but please, not just beause she is female!
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