LONDON - Andrew Bailey was appointed on Tuesday as head of the new British regulator in charge of overseeing the country’s largest banks.
Mr. Bailey, who had been acting as interim chief executive of the Prudential Regulatory Authority, was approved as the full-time head of the British regulator, which will operate as part of the Bank of England, the country’s central bank.
The regulator and the newly-created Financial Conduct Authority, which will police market abuse in the British financial services industry, take over in April from the Financial Services Authority. Martin Wheatley will lead the Financial Conduct Authority.
The idea for the two regulators first emerged in 2010 after the the financial crisis. The Financial Services Authority has been widely criticized for failing to catch problems that led to the country’s banks struggling under billions of dollars of debt in the build up to the financial crisis.
Many of the firms, including Royal Bank of Scotland and LloydsBanking Group, received multi-billion dollar government bailouts to keep them afloat.
Britain’s financial industry also has come under scrutiny after a series of recent scandals.
Two of the country’s largest firms, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland, already have agreed to large fines related to the manipulation of the London interbank offered rate, or Libor. Others, including HSBC and Standard Chartered, have paid large financial penalties connected to money-laundering allegations in the United States.
