hilary [week 8]: hector sants, ceo of fsa

Before choosing Oxford for my MBA, I had visited several other business schools. I was surprised to learn that in just about every instance, other business schools were geographically and culturally separate from the larger university. One thing that appealed to me about Oxford was the fact that the Saïd Business School is an integral part of the University of Oxford.

Many of the people whose names splash the headlines of the Financial Times come and speak at Oxford. In this way the business school benefits from Oxford’s 800-year history of educating leaders. Last Friday was no exception. Fresh from his morning interview with the BBC Today show, Hector Sants returned to his alma mater to deliver the Annual Lubbock Lecture in Management Studies to a packed theatre at the Saïd Business School, entitled “UK Financial Regulation: After the Crisis.”

Having served the past three years as CEO of the Financial Services Authority, Mr. Sants had already handed in his resignation in February, but with 6-months left to go in his term, he had a new announcement that he wanted to make at Oxford. As President of the Oxford Finance Club, I attended the event, and I was also invited to the boardroom afterwards to have dinner.

During the dinner, we followed Chatham House Rules allowing us to speak freely, but on the condition that opinions remained anonymous. We all shared a good laugh when I pointed out the fact that Mr. Sants and I would both be looking for jobs this summer. It just so happens that the FSA is hiring. I was surprised to learn that regulators get more exposure to global capital markets than investment bankers. I also suspect that regulators will be in high demand over the next few years as the financial services industry waits nervously to see what new rules will be meted out.

Mr. Sants’ tenure as CEO of the FSA began inauspiciously in July 2007. He had the misfortune of being appointed just weeks after two hedgefunds at Bear Stearns unexpectedly collapsed. This was followed by the American Home Mortgage bankruptcy in August. During these early days of the recession few had ever heard of collateralized mortgage obligations, or credit default swaps.

It was only a matter of time before the spill-over effect rippled across the Atlantic. The first to fall in the United Kingdom was Northern Rock in February 2008. Next, the British government nationalized part of Lloyds Bank and RBS. The FSA quickly found itself thrust into the limelight.

When the dust finally settled, the FSA received mixed reviews on its handling of the economic crisis. Many viewed the FSA as having too light of a touch for an industry that had witnessed regulatory concerns dating back to 1995 when Barings Bank collapsed. It appears that lax oversight may have once again contributed to a repeat of corporate excess.

To combat these criticisms, Mr. Sants emphasized during his speech that the FSA needs to be more proactive, including intervening earlier. Mr. Sants formally announced tougher consumer protection rules governing the sale of financial products to the public. He declared, “We will now seek to proactively intervene earlier in the product chain to anticipate consumer detriment and choke it off before it occurs.” This new “outcomes-based” approach to regulation replaces the previous “principles-based” regime. The FSA will continue to follow a broad set of principles, but the big difference will be much stricter supervision.

The new FSA approach to regulation ratchets up the dial on government heavy-handedness – perhaps too far. For example, reform on an institutional level will at the very minimum entail annual stress tests for banks. His speech also alluded to a possible “insurance tax” on financial institutions to offset systemic risk. Mr. Sants summarized his position as follows, “Higher capital and liquidity will reduce the probability of failure.” Mortgage companies will also be policed by “mystery shoppers” who will be monitoring lending standards. Many wonder whether the FSA is going too far, or not far enough?

Despite these recent overtures, however, the FSA must still contend with the very real possibility that a Tory victory in the upcoming months may entirely uproot the institution that Mr. Sants has worked so hard to reform. Time will tell whether the money and political will exist for the FSA to succeed.

*At the request of the Saïd Business School Press Office, this blog was posted on the website "BusinessBecause" in an article entitled, Hector Sants Makes FSA Announcement at Oxford University.*