The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has announced that Mark Steward (pictured) will be stepping down as the executive director of enforcement and market oversight after seven years with the regulator.
The FCA said Steward will leave in the spring of 2023, and that the global search for his successor will begin shortly.
Since joining the FCA in 2015, Steward has led the delivery of some of the FCA’s most complex, high-profile, and precedent-setting enforcement cases, with many notable successes against major global financial institutions and individuals.
He also led the conduct regulator’s listing authority and oversight of the UK’s publicly traded markets, a role in which he developed the FCA’s data-led approach to market oversight. Steward has also been at the forefront of the FCA’s anti-scam marketing campaign Scamsmart.
“Mark has brought his formidable experience as a regulator and as a litigator to the FCA, delivering significant enforcement cases across a broad spectrum, as well as the FCA’s data-led approach to market oversight,” Nikhil Rathi, chief executive at the Financial Conduct Authority, said. “That enormous contribution is a result of Mark’s abiding belief in fairness, that markets must be clean if the economy is to thrive and in doing the right thing on behalf of consumers.
Rathi added that Steward has shown that the FCA is willing to take on challenging cases, and will use the full extent of its powers to deliver results that have a real impact for the markets it oversees and for those who rely on them.
“I am hugely grateful for Mark’s leadership, dedication and expertise and wish him the very best for the future,” he said.
Steward, for his part, stated it had been a privilege to “serve the FCA throughout many challenges over the last seven years and to leave behind such a strong team for the future.”
