High-ranking crime fighter to join UKs FCA as payments and digital assets director

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), a UK regulatory agency, has hired about 500 additional staff this year as part of a new three years. strategy.. There are six directors among the new employees. publication July 5th. Two of them come from the police background.

The Director of Payments and Digital Assets is a newly created position that oversees e-commerce, payments, crypto asset markets and related policy development. Matthew Long has been appointed to that position, transferred from the National Crime Agency and is now Director of the National Crime Agency. Long has also led the UK’s financial intelligence unit. He began his career as a detective in the Kent Police and holds a PhD in Risk Management. Long begins in October with his new role.

In September, Karen Baxter will support FCA enforcement and market surveillance activities as it joins the FCA as Director of Strategy, Policy, International and Intelligence. She was the commander and national coordinator of economic crime for the City of London Police. She is also a board member of the Northern Ireland Department of Communications.

Two interim directors have been appointed as permanent directors, and new directors for consumer finance and wholesale buyside have also been appointed.

Related: Former Prime Minister says Britain is lagging behind cryptocurrency opportunities

The agency’s new strategy is more innovative, assertive, adaptable and aims to:

By developing a regulatory approach to the digital market, we will proactively shape the digitization of financial services.

In the digital market, this strategy addressed competition among major digital companies and the risks and benefits that Big Tech poses to the sector. It examines the role of artificial intelligence in finance and leads a study that “gets information from behavioral economics and tests the journey of digital consumers.”