FSA’s Margaret Cole to step down after seven years at watchdog

MARGARET Cole, the Financial Services Authority’s (FSA’s) head of conduct, will step down from the City watchdog at the end of next month after serving seven years at the regulator.

It is understood the former commercial lawyer is leaving after failing to get the top job at what will become the replacement watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Instead, Martin Wheatley, who joined the FSA last February, will become head of the FCA.

Since she joined the watchdog in 2005, Cole has beefed up enforcement by issuing record fines and targeting top names, slapping a £7.2 million penalty on US hedge fund star David Einhorn and his Greenlight Capital fund last month. Cole also helped the watchdog get its first criminal convictions for insider dealing, including Malcolm Calvert, a former Cazenove stockbroker, sentenced to 21 months for insider dealing.

Cole said: “I joined the FSA to help in the fight against wrongdoing within the financial services industry and I believe a lot has been achieved in my time here.”

Hector Sants, chief executive of the FSA, said she had been “pivotal in transforming the FSA’s approach to enforcement”. “Her expertise across a broad range of management disciplines and the work she has done in setting up the conduct business unit has put us in good shape to develop the future conduct regulator,” he added.