City minister fails to back FCA chair over LCF-linked appointment

City minister John Glen has declined to give his full backing to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) chairman over the senior appointment of an individual that was linked to regulatory failings over  London Capital & Finance (LCF).

Glen was yesterday asked by Mel Stride, chairman of the Commons treasury select committee, whether he was confident in Charles Randell’s oversight of the appointment of Megan Butler, according to a report in The Times.

Butler was appointed as executive director last year to lead the FCA’s transformation programme to integrate its supervision and policy departments, despite being specifically named in the Gloster report, which reviewed the regulation and supervision of the collapsed mini-bond provider.

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The report highlighted several regulatory failings and named Butler, whose previous department – supervision – was criticised for ignoring and missing failings by LCF.

She was named alongside former FCA chief executive Andrew Bailey, who left to become Bank of England governor, and executive director of supervision, retail and authorisations Jonathan Davidson who moved to a role as senior adviser to the FCA on climate change.

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Glen was asked whether he was confident in the oversight of Butler’s appointment but repeatedly failed to say that he was. Instead, he said it was for the committee to judge on the evidence whether the appointment was right and that it was an operational matter for Randell, according to The Times.

Last month, FCA chief executive Nikhil Rathi defended the appointment of Megan Butler at a  Treasury committee inquiry. He highlighted that Butler brings three decades of experience to the role, and that she recognises mistakes have been made and is committed to working to resolve them.

The FCA has been contacted for comment.