Tattersall leaves FSA

Colin Tattersall, head of op risk policy at the UK's Financial Services Authority, has left his post at the supervisor. Market sources say he is set to join the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority's Basel II implementation efforts, based in Dublin.

Tattersall took his current post in early 2003, after a string of departures at the UK FSA left it without senior officials in the op risk area. Tattersall’s original background was in credit risk.

The FSA had not named a replacement as of press time, and it was uncertain whether someone internally would shift to the post or if the FSA would seek to recruit externally for the role. The FSA declined to confirm Tattersall’s new post.

During the past few months, the FSA has hired four more people for its overall Basel II implementation effort, and is seeking to hire another three, according to market sources.

One trade association executive said the FSA is also keen to exploit the concept of secondments from industry, especially during the period of models approval at the back end of 2005.

Because of these recent hires, the industry association official says he is "more confident that it is getting on with the important business of implementation".

The Irish supervisor was created in April 2002 as an independent financial regulator, separate from the central bank, under the guidance of Charles McCreevy, then minister of finance for Ireland, and now commissioner for the Internal Markets Directorate at the European Commission.