Christopher Woolard will be stepping down from the FCA Board and any executive “or decision-making” roles from the start of October.

He will chair a review of the future regulation of the unsecured credit market, reporting to the FCA board, but will be moving on from the FCA when the review completes.

London Stock Exchange CEO Nikhil Rathi will become the permanent chief executive of the FCA from 1 October 2020. 

Mr Woolard joined the FCA executive committee in 2013 and joined the board in 2015. Since March 2020 he has been serving as interim CEO.

He led the FCA’s strategy and competition work including the cap on payday lending and market studies across wholesale and retail banking, asset management and insurance. Most recently as interim CEO he has led the FCA’s response to Covid-19.

Mr Woolard said: “It has been a tremendous honour to serve as chief executive of the FCA at such a critical time for the country and financial services. I’d like to thank my many colleagues over the last eight years for all their help and support. I am delighted to be asked to lead a timely and significant review where access to sustainable credit is of great importance to so many people.”

Charles Randell, Chair of the FCA, said: “I am grateful for Chris’s contribution to the FCA, particularly during the last 6 months as he has led us through the coronavirus crisis with huge energy and skill.  Chris’s deep understanding of the unsecured credit market makes him the ideal person to advise the Board on the development of regulation to support sustainable unsecured lending.  Unsecured lending can be critical to helping people through tough times but can cause serious harm if it’s not well regulated.”

The review will concentrate on how regulation can better support a healthy unsecured lending market. It will take into account the impact of the coronavirus on employment security and credit scores, changes in business models and new developments in unsecured lending including the growth of unregulated products in retail and the workplace. He will be assisted by an advisory group and will make recommendations to the FCA Board in early 2021.

The Review will be an important building block for the FCA’s Consumer Credit business priority, which it announced as part of its 2020/21 Business Plan in April of this year and which seeks to ensure that consumer credit markets work well.