Financial Conduct Authority chief operating officer Stephanie Cohen will leave the regulator later this year, citing personal reasons.
According to a memo seen by Financial News, she is stepping down from the COO and leaving the regulator later this year, handing over to Emily Shepperd, executive director for authorisations.
Cohen, who previously spent 14 years at BlackRock, including a stint as global COO for active equities, was appointed into the FCA COO role in February as part of a shakeup of the watchdog’s leadership under new chief executive Nikhil Rathi.
Shepperd, who had already been put in charge of the regulator’s transformation project in the wake of director Megan Butler’s departure, will be hiring in two directors to “increase leadership capacity” in authorisations.
READ FCA’s transformation chief Megan Butler set to quit City regulator
Shepperd was former BNY Mellon’s Emea COO and Aegon’s director of customer services and change before joining the FCA last year.
“I’m proud of the great progress made by the operations function in delivering enablement and operational excellence for the organisation,” Cohen said in the memo, saying she felt “privileged” to work with the regulator.
READ FCA execs defend tough year in leaked Christmas messages
Rathi said: “I understand Steph’s reasons for stepping down and would like to acknowledge her important contribution to the FCA development during a period of significant change.”
The COO role will be a vital cog in the FCA machine over the coming months, as it looks to fulfill Rathi’s ambition to become more data led, and have better systems in place to stop firms become authorised by the regulator that should not have been.
Regulatory reporting tools such as Gabriel have been a significant focus for the regulator in recent years.
In a 23 December note also seen by Financial News entitled “ExCo share their highlights of the year”, in chief data, information and intelligence officer Jessica Rusu noted there has been the “quiet resolution of 10,000 discrepancies resolved between our systems” in 2021.
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