Sarah Pritchard, FCA executive director for supervision, policy and competition, has been promoted to be deputy chief executive. 

She joined the watchdog in June 2021 and is a former director of the National Economic Crime Centre.

She qualified as a commercial litigator with Dechert LLP and has had investigative, operational and legal roles in a range of government departments and in the private sector, including leading global financial crime compliance and reputational risk teams at HSBC.

Ms Pritchard led the supervision, policy and competition division at the FCA before lead the FCA’s markets function. Most recently she was responsible for consumers and competition.

The new role of deputy CEO has been created to reflect the FCA’s expanding remit, with the integration of the Payment Systems Regulator, regulation of stablecoin and crypto firms as well as buy-now-pay-later activities.

As deputy chief executive, Ms Pritchard will also support the FCA’s increasingly international focus, given its role supporting UK growth and competitiveness. 

Nikhil Rathi, chief executive of the FCA, said: “Since joining us, Sarah helped bring together our supervision, policy and competition functions and has led some of our most high-profile work, for example the once-in-a-generation overhaul of the listing rules and landmark work on financial advice and guidance.”

Ashley Alder, chair of the FCA, said:  “The international environment is complex, our remit is growing and expectations of us continue to evolve. The board fully support Sarah taking on the role of deputy chief executive to help Nikhil lead the FCA day-to-day and cultivate our key relationships.”

Sarah Pritchard said: “The last four years has been marked by significant reform. I am looking forward to working even more closely with Nikhil so there is no let up in the pace of change, and to ensure we have the right relationships, domestically and internationally.”   

She has already taken up the deputy chief executive role. There will be no immediate change to her areas of responsibility, the regulator said.