In this episode, our special guest is Miles Bake, the former Head of Enforcement at the Bank of England and the Director of Governance at the FCA. In a fascinating discussion, he offers a glimpse into the inner workings of the UK’s financial services regulators.

Special guest Miles Bake shares his take on what makes financial services regulators tick. This is something he’s uniquely placed to do, having worked extensively in leadership roles at the Prudential Regulatory Authority (PRA) and at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

In this episode, host Nathan Willmott and his Ashurst colleague Adam Jamieson ask Miles the burning questions that financial services firms often ask, including:

• Why have the financial services regulators increasingly leaned harder into enforcement in recent years?
• How do regulators determine which firms do and don’t get referred for investigations?
• In the absence of targets or metrics, how do regulators decide the appropriate level of enforcement?
• Since the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards, how successful has the senior managers regime been?
• How aligned or divergent are the FCA and PRA’s enforcement policies and actions?
• During investigations, how do regulators balance the need for transparency with firms’ reputational risks?
• When enforcement heads consider policy decisions, how do they determine when government consultation is required?
• Considering the FCA’s aim to promote competitiveness, how might enforcement policy be shaped by the government’s growth agenda?

To hear Miles tackle these questions (and to subscribe to future episodes in our enforcement mini-series) search for “Ashurst Legal Outlook” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred podcast player. And to find out more about the full range of Ashurst podcasts, visit ashurst.com/podcasts.

The information provided is not intended to be a comprehensive review of all developments in the law and practice, or to cover all aspects of those referred to. Listeners should take legal advice before applying it to specific issues or transactions.