Leeds office of Financial Conduct Authority to double in size by recruiting 100 more staff

Speaking to The Yorkshire Post, William Hague, change and transformation director and head of the FCA’s Leeds office, said: “We are keen to get to just over 200 in the next year and we’re well on track. I think there could be opportunities, seeing the skills and the capabilities here, to go above that in the future.”

The FCA is recruiting for roles across the organisation. The regulator has a location agnostic recruitment policy, meaning that any employee can work from its Leeds or Edinburgh offices.

"What we’re seeing is, because there’s a plethora of skills up here people from every team and directorate are based in Leeds, so there’s no limit to where that could go,” he said.

Mr Hague was speaking to The Yorkshire Post, along withFCA chief executive Nikhil Rathi, during Mr Rathi’s visit to Leeds.

Mr Rathi spent the day speaking to key players in Yorkshire’s financial sector about the importance of the industry in Yorkshire, the

growing fintech industry in the north and the role the regulator can play in encouraging growth.

He said one of the biggest challenges for the FCA was the ‘dramatic digitalisation’ of financial services, including AI. “The universities in Yorkshire, working very closely with the local authorities, have developed cutting-edge skills and capabilities in some of these new areas,” he added.

“Part of us establishing an office in Leeds is to enable us to access that talent to support us on some of thse big strategic challenges that we’re grappling with.”

The visit came as the FCA published its Financial Lives data for the region.

The regulator found that around 700,000 people in Yorkshire had missed a domestic bill or loan payment in at least three of the previous six months.

It also found that 51 per cent of people in Yorkshire in felt more anxious or stressed due to the rising cost of living, and around one million people were finding it a heavy burden to pay their bills or meet credit repayments.

However, Mr Rathi reminded borrowers that they can get help from their lenders if they are struggling to keep up with payments.

He said: “We know that cost of living pressures are affecting people in Yorkshire. But you don’t need to struggle alone. We’re ensuring lenders provide support if you need it, and there is free debt advice available for those in real difficulty.”

He added: “The key thing is to talk about it early and work through what the options might be.”

Where firms haven't supported their customers properly, the FCA has told them to make changes. It reminded 3,500 lenders of how they should be supporting borrowers in financial difficulty and told 32 lenders to make changes to the way they treat customers. This work has led to up to £47m in compensation being secured for over 195,000 customers.