Man at the top: What will Andrew Bailey bring to the FCA?

Bailey took the helm at the FCA on 1 July

Martin Wheatley was ousted at the financial services regulator last year to be succeeded by the Bank of England's Andrew Bailey. Since then a number of banking investigations have been dropped so is this a sign of things to come? Alex Shaw takes a closer look.

The first question to ask when considering the appointment of any CEO of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is whether it actually makes any difference? For many observers, the sacking of Martin Wheatley in July 2015 marked the point at which the FCA ceased to be a genuinely independent regulator, becoming a vessel for the furtherance of the government's wider fiscal approach. This perceived shift began with a distinct change in the mood music around banking, as a newly emollient Chancellor George Osborne matched rhetoric about a ‘new settlement' with specific policy changes on the...