Recommendation 4

HM Government · verbatim extract Not Addressed

Second Special Report of Session 2021–22 9 The FCA takes a holistic approach when recruiting for all roles, but particularly for our critical roles. Once a position becomes vacant, we look at internal succession plans for all our Senior Leadership roles. Using these plans, we then assess who is immediately available with the appropriate skill set to cover for an interim period, as well as the strength and depth of our talent as we plan for a longer-term replacement. Where we are unable to fill a role from within the FCA on a temporary basis, we engage with the external market to bridge the gap while we undertake a full recruitment exercise. The duration of our interim arrangements is typically between six and 12 months to ensure a full search can be completed and the successful candidate brought onboard. For example, I have shared with you details of our recent interim General Counsel appointment and the full competition now underway for that role. All of our permanent appointments go through a robust recruitment process. In line with most other organisations, we conduct a mixture of internal-only recruitment, and exercises where we look both internally and externally. As I explained in my evidence to the Committee, transformation of the FCA is and has been a priority. I wanted to get things moving quickly and in order to do that, we chose to recruit an executive director for transformation from within the current executive team. This ensured stability and continuity during a period of considerable challenge (with successive lockdowns, end of the Brexit transition period and wider leadership change at the FCA) and allowed us to proceed with the wider restructuring of the FCA and launch campaigns for a range of other roles in parallel. This included the role of Chief Operating Officer, Chief Data, Information and Intelligence Officer and a number of other senior executive positions, which were run through global searches, internally and externally. The FCA Executive Committee now has ten members, six of whom have come from outside the FCA. Since October at Director level (the level immediately below the Executive Committee) in addition to promoting a number of our strongest internal leaders, we have also brought in significant new hires from outside the FCA, including a new Director, Digital and Intelligence, Chief Information Officer, Chief People Officer, Director of Environmental, Social and Governance and shortly a new Director of Communications. These new appointments bring a wealth of external operational, technological and commercial experience and this is balanced with the internal capability and institutional memory of longstanding FCA colleagues. I hope to continue to build an increasingly diverse team in the coming months and years.