FSA embarks on Solvency II hiring spree

The FSA will recruit an additional 460 staff this year to implement Solvency 2, according to its new business plan.

The regulator’s 2010 business plan said that its annual funding requirement has increased by 9.9%, 4% of this is from the beefed up regulation of major institutions that it launched last year. The balance comes from the additional 460 staff to be recruited by the end of 2010.

Hector Sants, FSA chief executive, defended the authority’s need for greater resources.

He said: “Intensive supervision is inherently more confrontational. Our supervisors are making judgements both about the robustness of the business models of firms and the suitability of the products they are selling. We will then intervene promptly if we anticipate problems.

“This proactive approach to supervision requires significantly more people than the old reactive model and those individuals must be of a higher quality and supported by more sophisticated systems. If society wants a more proactive approach it must accept that it will have a larger and more expensive regulator.”