Our Structure

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Job Grades

There are over 3,000 people working at the FSA, operating in a relatively flat structure.

To help you form a picture of what this means in practice, we've included below overviews of our job grades:

Director

Role holder will direct and control the strategy and execution of the division’s activities. Will be responsible for driving divisional policy, processes and services in line with the FSA’s strategic goals. Will have extensive knowledge and experience within area of expertise. May have considerable external exposure as a representative of the firm or as an industry expert.

Head of Department

Has strategic responsibility for own department within division. Will display strong leadership skills in relation to the FSA’s Leadership Competencies. Will have extensive knowledge and functional expertise and is likely to be seen as a technical expert in their field. The role is balanced between day-to-day operation of department and development of the department’s strategic direction.

Manager

Individual will lead/manage a team(s), to provide management and technical guidance to team members. Will have excellent people management skills and is likely to have broad and/or in-depth technical regulatory knowledge and experience. Working with senior management will have input into strategic planning and have authority to make most management decisions without referral.

Technical Specialist

Individual will provide expert advice to colleagues and/or applies knowledge to undertake or manage highly complex tasks and projects. Role requires in-depth specialist knowledge and experience of their sector or specialism. The role holder is recognised for their specialist knowledge and experience, which is likely to be particularly valuable or scarce in the market. Although role holder is likely to report to a manager or head of department, they are likely to advise management in their area of expertise. Role may also involve acting as a mentor to more junior staff and sharing specialist knowledge across the organisation and/or externally.

Senior Associate

Individual may act as a team leader or mentor to more junior staff. The incumbent of this role will generally undertake complex tasks and projects. Will have detailed technical regulatory knowledge and experience, and will work with minimal supervision although may refer to more senior colleagues for very complex or sensitive matters.

Associate

Individual will undertake or contribute to tasks and projects, sometimes of a complex nature. Will have a good level of technical regulatory knowledge and experience. Usual work is not likely to be closely supervised unless it is sensitive or complex but rather reviewed on completion.

Administrator

Individual will provide administrative support. Likely to maintain administrative systems or undertake tasks that support the working of teams, projects or individuals. Undertakes defined work mostly under supervision but will work on own initiative where work is routine or processes are established.

Conduct Business Unit:

The Conduct Business Unit (CBU) is responsible for the following:

  • Delivering a forward-looking, judgement-focused approach to supervision and supporting the delivery of the supervisory regime through effective risk prioritisation, identification and mitigation.
  • The Conduct Policy function for our Conduct of Business and Markets Infrastructure rules.
  • The recognition and supervision of the exchanges, clearing houses and other market infrastructure providers.
  • The effective assessment of new firm applications to the FSA.
  • Engaging with the European Supervisory Authorities and the wider European and international process to ensure the right outcomes are achieved for the UK financial industry.
  • The UK Listing Authority (as Competent Authority for Listing).
  • Market monitoring, market abuse and insider dealing detection.
  • Developing and piloting the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) operating model.

The CBU is split into the following divisions:

  • Markets Division: includes Wholesale Conduct Policy & Client Assets; Market Infrastructure & Policy; Market Monitoring; UK Listing Authority and International Strategy
  • Conduct Policy Division: includes Investments Policy and Conduct, Redress and Standards Department
  • Supervision Division: split into the Asset Management Department; Wholesale Banks & Investment Firms Department; Investments Department; Mortgages & GI Department; Triage, Risk & Analysis and the Conduct Risk Department
  • Authorisations Division: includes the Permissions Department; Approved Persons & Reporting and the Regulatory Transactions & Systems Support Department.

Prudential Business Unit

The Prudential Business Unit (PBU) is responsible for the following:

  • Delivering a forward-looking, judgement-focused approach to supervision and continuing to embed supervision in an intensive and intrusive manner, supported by effective risk identification and mitigation.
  • Leading global regulatory reform and continuing to improve the effectiveness of the wider EU regulatory regime.
  • Developing and piloting the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) operating model (including recovery and resolution and proactive intervention framework) ahead of its creation (expected in early 2013).
  • Developing and operationalising interfaces with the Conduct Business Unit (CBU), as well as the Bank of England.

The PBU is split into the following divisions:

  • Risk Specialists Division: includes Risk Architecture, Credit Risk, Market & Liquidity Risk, Risk Infrastructure & Capital and Insurance Risk Departments
  • Policy Division: covers Prudential Insurance, Prudential Banking, Prudential Cross-sectoral and Accounting & Audit Policy
  • Insurance Division: split into the London Markets; Non-life & International Composites, Retail Life, Groups, Insurance Specialists and Solvency II Programme Departments
  • Investment Banks & Overseas Banks Division: supervision of Overseas Banks, Investment Banks and Custody Banks
  • UK Banks & Building Societies Division: supervision of the Large Complex UK Banking groups, UK Banks, Building Societies & Credit Unions and has a Banking Specialists Department

Enforcement and Financial Crime

The Enforcement and Financial Crime Division (EFCD) conducts forensic investigations into suspected misconduct and compliance failures, and helps us deliver our statutory objective to reduce financial crime. The Enforcement and Financial Crime Division takes a bold and resolute approach. It is responsible for taking regulatory or criminal action against firms and individuals where we believe wrongdoing has occurred, in accordance with our strategy to achieve credible deterrence.

The Enforcement departments carry out administrative, civil and criminal proceedings in the enforcement of FSMA, FSA rules and other regulatory requirements. This includes investigating people who are carrying on regulated activities without authorisation. The EFCD also liaises with other regulatory bodies and law enforcement agencies in the UK and abroad on investigations, as well as working together to develop and implement new policies.

The Financial Crime and Intelligence Department helps us to reduce the extent to which it is possible for a business to be used for financial crime. The department enables the organisation to increase the regulatory focus in this area and brings together existing FSA expertise. The department comprises policy, intelligence, sector and operations teams who together deal with any issues involving money laundering, fraud or dishonesty, or market abuse.

Direct Reports

The Direct Reports Division consists of the following departments that report directly to the CEO's office:

  • Communications - aims to enhance the FSA's reputation and promote its work by communicating the right messages, to the right people, at the right time, in the right way.
  • Executive office - consists of two main functions: the Secretariat Team, which is responsible for our executive governance structure and provides support to the Executive Committee and its standing committees; and the Strategy, Planning and Performance Team, which coordinates and, where necessary, develops our strategy, particularly around scope issues, as well as leading and coordinating the annual three-year planning process.
  • Corporate services - supports our Board and its Committees, including the Regulatory Decisions Committee and LAAC. It provides support to the Statutory Panels, the Board of FSA Pension Plan Trustee Ltd and the Staff Consultative Committee.
  • General Counsel Division - provides legal advice to other areas within the FSA.
  • Financial stability - identifies and initiates financial stability risks and initiates action to mitigate them, taking a system-wide approach. This is split into three teams: Economics of Financial Regulation, Macro-prudential and Resilience.
  • Internal audit - assesses how effective our controls and processes are at managing risks to our objectives and reputation, and whether regulatory outcomes are being achieved.
  • International - provides us with a centre of excellence for international stakeholder management and analysis.
  • Specialist supervision unit - provides assurance on the quality of supervision and promotes continuous improvement by way of advice and support.

Operations

The Operations Division's role is to help us meet our statutory objectives and implement any scope changes by running the infrastructure, operational policies and processes in a smooth, efficient and effective way - keeping the building and systems running, managing the finances and driving the people agenda.

The division is split into the following:

  • Operations Services – includes the business service management, corporate security & resilience, information access and property & workplace departments.
  • Finance
  • HR
  • Information Systems
  • Programme Management – programme & project delivery.
  • Business Consulting Group – responsible for project solution, shape and scope.

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