Baptism of fire for Sants

摘要

Of all the regulators in the world struggling to cope with the financial market turmoil, perhaps none has faced more criticism than the UK's tripartite authorities of the Treasury, Bank of England (BoE) and Financial Services Authority (FSA). For Hector Sants, appointed chief executive of the FSA on 20 July last year, it has been the archetypal baptism of fire. Only a few weeks after getting his feet under his new desk, the US subprime crisis detonated. It sparked off the global credit crunch, which soon led to the near-collapse of UK bank Northern Rock. Mr Sants, along with chancellor Alistair Darling and BoE governor Mervyn King, may have put out the flames but they are still keeping an eye on the embers to ensure they do not reignite.