22nd March 2012
Coles to Newcastle?
So we now know, Margaret Cole will be a member of PWC UK’s executive board with responsibility for the office of general counsel. Although it makes for a “jokey headline, PwC do have an office in Newcastle, but this is no laughing matter and I doubt very much that Ms Cole will see much of Tyneside in her important role.
Ms Cole is quoted as saying: “I’m looking forward to the opportunity to work with a great team of people in such a dynamic and complex international business environment at a key time in its development.” Clearly Canary Wharf did not tick all the boxes then, a bit of a slap for Hector?
Now I must place on record that Ms Cole has every right to seek gainful employment if the FSA proves not to provide the career advancement, remuneration or even a dynamic and complex business environment that she may expect- even crave, but, such a role is not something that happens overnight and would demonstrate that Ms Cole’s mind has not perhaps been as fully on the job as it should be for some time.
The cynics out there were correct in thinking that a big job would be lined up after the summer holidays with a bank or other financial institution.
But, with so many high profile FSA ‘ex-ecutives’ having already pioneered this route is there something rotten about such journey?
After all we should note that Government ministers are prohibited from working with companies their department may have had a relationship with for two years.
Former cabinet minister Geoff Hoon had restrictions put on his business activities by the body set up to prevent politicians misusing their influence.
The restrictions meant Mr. Hoon could not draw on any privileged information he was given during his time as a minister for the next two years.
The Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba), which looks at the position of all ministers who take up jobs after leaving Parliament states that:
“Under the Ministerial Code former Ministers who want to take up any appointments or employment for two years after leaving office are required to seek advice from the Advisory Committee, and must abide by that advice. Former Ministers are asked to complete an application form”.
This protocol should apply to ALL those in high profile regulatory positions too and this should be a high priority for HM Treasury to put in place rules to stop such “bed hopping” that has the potential for a commercial organisation to benefit from the possibly highly sensitive knowledge and intelligence that Ms Cole has no doubt been privy to.
I think Simon Mansell has a point when stating “Do you all remember the famous American Express add: Membership has its privileges? Maybe we should rename the FSA as PWC? Hoban takes advice from a string of bankers, advisers to bankers and former FSA officials. His nine strong RDR implementation committee team includes John Tattersall former chairman of financial services regulatory practice at PWC. Tattershall is the former boss at PWC when Hoban and Chris Cummings were both there. Now that Cole is heading there its clear that this is not just a gentlemen’s club”!
And it is not St James’ Park either pet.
Comments (4)
We have all known for ages that Canary Wharf acts as a seminary for financial services ‘high fliers’, who spend a few years at No.25 polishing up their CVS to make them attractive propositions for financial services companies. The old ploy of gamekeepers joining the poachers. The Inland Revenue have been doing it for years.
That some have now twigged that the Regulators are actually the big four auditors (PWC, KPMG, E&Y and Deloittes).The revolving door between them and the Colonnade has been an open secret for years. They then return to these so called consultancies having had a good grounding in how things work and then advise others how to get round it – for a very fat fee.
That these very firms often appear to be less than the models of expertise, probity and efficiency they would have us believe seems to be beside the point. One wonders how much of the failings and errors of regulation can be laid squarely at their door?
So….. tell us something we don’t know.
Harry Katz
Norwest 23/03/2012 09:22
cortesin 23/03/2012 10:17
Then you have to decide the definition of a 'decent interval'. I would have thought that once someone leaves the regulator they shouldn’t get employment within financial services for a minimum of 3 years. That should sort it.
You need to remember that the ‘soldiers’ that do the work are actually career regulators and are in the main quite decent people with good intentions. They are the ones who invariably actually have the experience of being on the sharp end and some have actually had experience of giving advice – not just pontificating on it. They are the ones that have to enforce the arcane rules laid down by the big bananas – who are precisely the ones to whom this debate refers
Harry Katz 23/03/2012 19:33
cortesin 26/03/2012 08:03
You need to be logged in to comment on this article