Capital Markets Policy Lead

at  Financial Conduct Authority

Salary: National £57,600 to £73,000 & London £63,300 to £80,000 per annum – Salary offered will be based on skills and experience
Are you interested in helping to make significant changes to the UK’s capital markets framework at the FCA?
The team/department
The Financial Conduct Authority is a key part of the regulatory structure in financial services, together with the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Bank of England. We work to make financial markets work well for consumers of financial services.
We are looking to fill a Lead Associate role in the Capital Markets Department within the Supervision, Policy and Competition Division at the FCA. The Capital Markets Department focuses on supervision and policy relating to key aspects of wholesale financial markets, including primary markets, credit ratings and benchmark providers, trading conduct and transparency, and wholesale cryptoasset markets. We have a key role in delivering the FCA’s 3-year strategic priority to strengthen our wholesale markets and ensure that the UK continues to be regarded as one of the leading global markets of choice for issuers, intermediaries and investors, when compared to other high-quality markets.
The Primary Markets Policy team is responsible for the FCA’s Listing Rules and disclosure obligations for companies seeking admission to UK regulated markets, as well as ongoing transparency requirements. The team also has policy responsibility for other forms of capital raising activity, such as crowdfunding.
The team also leads on sustainability-related financial disclosures by listed companies, for example our rules requiring companies to report annually based on the Taskforce for Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) framework.
What you will be doing
This role provides an opportunity to influence and develop policy proposals to deliver significant changes to the UK’s capital markets framework. This includes developing policy on how we regulate companies seeking to gain Official Listing and admission to regulated markets; relevant transactions such as initial public offerings (IPOs), follow-on capital raising and debt issuance; prospectus disclosure requirements; and ongoing issuer disclosure obligations.
These areas are currently subject to several high-profile, strategic reviews. This includes FCA’s Primary Markets Effectiveness review work, which has recently delivered significant reforms to the UK Listing Rules following Lord Hill’s Listing Review in 2021. We are also consulting on significant changes to implement the Government’s new Public Offers and Admissions to Trading Regulations, which will replace the UK Prospectus Regulation. We engage regularly with stakeholders across government and other agencies, FCA statutory Panels and wider market participants to shape and deliver regulatory reform in these areas.

You will be expected to:

• Line manage direct reports as well as mentoring and supporting other colleagues in the team
• Support the manager in shaping the strategy of the team, the team’s and individuals’ objectives and priorities, allocating and prioritising workstreams
• Review and understand existing market practice and regulation, identify areas of potential harm or scope for improving market effectiveness, and propose policy recommendations based on market feedback, evidence and cost benefit analysis
• Represent the team in a professional manner to engage with and influence internal and external stakeholders, including government and industry bodies, to deliver policy outcomes in line with FCA objectives
• Write or oversee the production by others of high-quality policy papers, including discussion and consultation papers, policy statements and internal governance and briefing papers that effectively and clearly convey our proposals, positions or expectations, and understanding of relevant markets
• Consider how primary markets are evolving, identify risks or opportunities, and contribute towards our vision for improving long-term outcomes for UK markets – including how we can harness data to assess the impacts of regulation
• Contribute policy expertise and knowledge sharing with colleagues

In relation to the team’s current projects, this role is intended to focus on overseeing and delivering aspects of our work relating to corporate issuers’ sustainability disclosures and our wider engagement with Government, other regulatory partners and external stakeholders in this area. Subject to FCA and Government priorities, it will also involve contributing to workstreams under our Public Offers and Admissions to Trading regime project and / or other workstreams related to transparency requirements for issuers.

What will you get from the role?

• This role offers exposure to a fast-paced, flexible environment which is well suited to those with strong analytical thinking and communication skills, with some knowledge of primary markets regulation
• You will have formal line management responsibilities and contribute to setting priorities, planning and driving forward the delivery of complex and high-profile projects
• You will have the opportunity to work with and influence a wide range of regulatory and industry professionals, both internally and externally to the FCA
• You will gain exposure to senior management and executive committees within the FCA as part of your policy work

Our competitive flexible benefits scheme gives you the opportunity to create a personalised benefits package, tailored to suit your lifecycle. You can use this allowance to purchase additional benefits such as dental or cycle to work or you have the option top up your base salary by taking this as cash.

Core benefits that you will receive as standard are:

• 25 days holiday per year plus bank holidays
• Private healthcare with Bupa
• A non-contributory Pension of at least 8% of basic salary each month (there are several contribution levels that increase depending on your age – up to 12% a month once you reach age 35)
• Life assurance of eight times your basic salary
• Income protection

We support hybrid working which means you will be able to work from home up to 60% of the time over a month with the remainder of your time in one of our three office locations.
The skills and experience you’ll have
We are a signatory to the Government’s Disability Confident scheme. This means that we will offer an interview to disabled candidates entering under the scheme, who best meet the minimum criteria for a role.

Minimum

• Previous experience of working in a regulatory / public policy or advocacy role related to financial markets, and
• Experience of applying financial services regulation to capital market activities

Essential

• Project and people management skills to plan and drive forward work directly and by overseeing others to meet deadlines
• The ability to review and assess complex issues in order to make sound policy judgements or recommendations
• A collaborative approach and ability to think creatively about new regulatory issues
• Strong written and oral communication skills, including the ability to:
• Distil complex issues into succinct messages, and
• Present recommendations confidently to a variety of internal and external stakeholders, both orally and in writing
• Experience of driving stakeholder management and influencing others effectively

About the FCA
The FCA regulates the conduct of 50,000 firms in the UK to ensure our financial markets are honest, fair and competitive. We do this to make sure markets work well for individuals, businesses and the economy as a whole. For more information on what we do, our three-year strategy can be found
here.
The FCA’s Values & Diversity
Our ambition is to cultivate a culture of inclusion for all employees that respects their individual strengths, views, and experiences. We believe that our differences and similarities enable us to be a better organisation – one that makes better decisions, drives innovation, and delivers better regulation.
The FCA is committed to achieving greater diversity across all levels of the organisations. Given this, we particularly welcome applications from women, disabled and minority ethnic candidates for our lead associate role.
Flexible working
We welcome applications from candidates who are looking for flexible arrangements. Many of our staff work flexibly including working part-time, staggered hours, and job shares. We can’t promise to give you exactly what you want but we won’t judge you for asking.
Multilocation
As part of the FCA’s on-going commitment to develop our national presence, most of our vacancies are now open to working in our Edinburgh, Leeds, or London offices. This means that as part of the application process you will be able to select your preference of which office location you would like to work from.
Useful information
Applications for this role close at midnight on 13th October
This role is graded as Lead Associate - Regulatory
What to expect from our interview process

The process will involve the below stages:

• Candidates will have 48 hours to complete and return a case study and will then have an interview where the case study will be discussed

Your Recruiter will discuss the process in detail with you during screening for the role.
Recruitment Timetable
Advert closing Date: 13th October
Case study completion: 22nd-24th October
Final Interview: 29th & 30th October
Please make the recruiter aware if you are going to be unavailable for any date during this time.
Got a question?
If you are an external candidate and you are interested in learning more about the role, please contact Aaron Ward on
aaron.ward@fca.org.uk
If you are an internal candidate and you are interested in learning more about the role, please contact Lucy Matthews on
lucy.matthews@fca.org.uk
Please note that all applications must be submitted through our online portal before the closing date, applications sent via email will not be accepted.
Application support
We want to remove any possible barriers and are committed to providing a wide range of reasonable adjustments so that you can keep the focus on your conversations and be at your best.
If you have an accessibility requirement, disability, or condition that means you might require changes to the recruitment process, please contact your recruiter to discuss this further. Our aim is to make your application as easy and comfortable as possible, and your recruiter will be happy to work with you to make any necessary arrangements where possible

• This role offers exposure to a fast-paced, flexible environment which is well suited to those with strong analytical thinking and communication skills, with some knowledge of primary markets regulation
• You will have formal line management responsibilities and contribute to setting priorities, planning and driving forward the delivery of complex and high-profile projects
• You will have the opportunity to work with and influence a wide range of regulatory and industry professionals, both internally and externally to the FCA
• You will gain exposure to senior management and executive committees within the FCA as part of your policy wor