Tiner's tightrope

摘要

In his career, Sir Howard Davies has been, inter alia, deputy governor of the Bank of England, boss of the Confederation of British Industry, and a consultant at McKinsey, a management consultancy that is highly regarded by those who work for it. For the past six years he has been the chairman of Britain's main financial regulator, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), which in 1998 brought together Britain's ten regulators under one roof. He has done a tough job well. On September 22nd Sir Howard will leave to become the director of the London School of Economics, and his job will be split in two. John Tiner, an FSA man, will be chief executive, and Callum McCarthy, late of Ofgem, the energy regulator, will be chairman. They will have to hold a delicate balance if London is to retain its status as the top international financial centre. That it should do so is of interest way beyond the square mile: financial services are Britain's single biggest export earner, with exports worth 拢13 billion ($19 billion) in 2001.