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A director of a UK charities bank that ran into serious financial difficulties last month is set to be named as the next boss of the institution that safeguards government guaranteed deposits in failed banks.
Martyn Beauchamp, a non-executive director of CAF Bank, has been put forward as interim chief executive of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, after disagreements between regulators and the Treasury over the appointment, people familiar with the matter told the Financial Times.
The Treasury had pushed for another candidate, a woman, who was among the final two but not the preferred choice of the Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority, which approve FSCS appointments, two of the people said.
The FSCS was previously led by Caroline Rainbird until her sudden resignation in June. Rainbird was one of a growing number of female chief executives in the regulatory world, alongside recent female appointments to lead the pensions regulator and Financial Ombudsman Service.
The chair and chief executive of the UK’s biggest financial regulator, the FCA, are both male, as is the head of the Bank of England’s regulatory arm the PRA and the head of the payments regulator.
The FCA and PRA this week launched a joint industry consultation on improving diversity in financial services.
The FCA, PRA, the Treasury and the FSCS declined to comment.
CAF Bank amassed paper losses on its bond portfolio big enough to wipe out three quarters of its regulatory capital. Bond losses contributed to the collapse of California lender Silicon Valley Bank. CAF’s owner, Charities Aid Foundation, offered £15mn in new debt to shore up the bank’s finances in early August. Beauchamp has been a director at the bank since 2017.
The people familiar with the matter said Beauchamp’s appointment was likely to be confirmed in the coming days and would be for a fixed 12 month term. FSCS chair Marshall Bailey is due to step down in April 2024; the timeline allows his successor to find the permanent chief executive.
Beauchamp’s lengthy career in finance and business began with a stint on the graduate leadership programme at investment bank Robert Fleming, which is now part of JPMorgan Chase, in 1995.
Beauchamp declined to comment. He spent more than a decade at GE Capital, in Asia and the UK, before a stint at the National Commercial Bank in the Middle East, Tesco Bank and Sainsbury’s Argos Financial Services.
He is set to take over the FSCS as the government weighs measures to increase the level of protection of bank deposits from £85,000 and introduce other changes for the UK’s regime for dealing with failed banks in the aftermath of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank’s UK arm last March.
