Senior Capital Markets Policy Associate

Requirements of the role

About the FCA

The FCA regulates the conduct of 45,000 firms in the UK to ensure our financial markets are honest, fair and competitive. Follow this link to find out more About the FCA

We are looking for someone to join the capital markets department within the supervision, policy and competition division at the FCA. The department focuses on supervision and policy relating to key aspects of wholesale financial markets, including primary markets, credit ratings and benchmark providers, trading conduct and transparency, and wholesale Cryptoasset markets. We have a key role in delivering the FCA’s 3-year strategic priority to strengthen our wholesale markets and ensure that the UK continues to be regarded as one of the leading global markets of choice for issuers, intermediaries and investors, when compared to other high-quality markets.

The Primary Markets Policy team is responsible for the FCA’s Listing Rules and disclosure obligations for companies seeking admission to UK regulated markets, as well as ongoing transparency requirements. The team also has policy responsibility for other forms of capital raising activity, such as crowdfunding.

The team also leads on sustainability-related financial disclosures by listed companies, for example our rules requiring companies to report annually based on the Taskforce for Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) framework.

What will you be doing

This role provides an opportunity to influence and develop policy proposals to deliver significant changes to the UK’s capital markets framework. This includes developing policy on how we regulate companies seeking to admit securities to the Official List and admission to regulated markets; relevant transactions such as initial public offerings (IPOs), follow-on capital raising and debt issuance; documentary (prospectus) disclosure requirements; and ongoing issuer disclosure obligations.

These areas are currently subject to several high-profile, strategic reviews. This includes FCA’s Primary Markets Effectiveness review work, which has recently delivered significant reforms to the UK Listing Rules following Lord Hill’s Listing Review in 2021. We are also consulting on significant changes to implement the Government’s new Public Offers and Admissions to Trading Regulations, which will replace the UK Prospectus Regulation. Further work into next year will include changes to our rules on sustainability-related reporting by listed companies. We engage regularly with stakeholders across government and other agencies, FCA statutory Panels and wider market participants to shape and deliver regulatory reform in these areas.

The successful candidate will be able to:

• Understand and review existing market practice and regulation, identify areas of potential harm or scope for improving market effectiveness, and propose policy recommendations based on market feedback, evidence and cost-benefit-analysis
• Consider how primary markets are evolving, identify risks or opportunities, and contribute towards our vision for improving long-term outcomes for UK markets
• Produce high quality written policy papers, including discussion and consultation papers, policy statements and internal governance and briefing papers
• Work with and influence internal and external stakeholders to deliver policy outcomes in line with FCA objectives
• Participate in a constructive working relationship with other authorities in the official sector (UK and international) and industry stakeholders to understand and resolve challenges
• Represent the team in a professional manner with internal and external stakeholders, providing an effective and constructive liaison point within the department, across the FCA and externally on areas of policy expertise

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