Is the Financial Services Authority cracking under the strain?

With the Conservative party who have pledged to abolish the FSA if they win the election and the amount of criticism they have taken for its failure to rein in banks The FSA are in danger of becoming Lame Ducks.

This was claimed yesterday by Regulatory partner Jonathan Davies at the City lawyers Reynolds Porter Chamberlain, after the shock announcement that chief executive, Hector Sants was resigning. Sants took over the regulatory body soon after the first signs of cracking appeared within the banks in July 2007. Sants told the board that he will leave after 3 years; however this news seems to have taken the board by surprise.

According to another senior City lawyer who believes it was a very sensitive moment to be going: 54-year-old Sants was paid £623,000 last year. Now the hot contender for the role is Sally Dewar, head of risk to take over from Hector Sants. John Pain, head of supervision, is the other contender who came from Lloyds.

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