Three decades
inside the regime.

The author of this guide has spent over three decades inside regulated financial services — as a practitioner, as a senior manager accountable under the Senior Managers and Certification Regime, and as a compliance consultant supporting firms through some of the most consequential regulatory transitions of the modern era.

That career has covered the full life-cycle of UK conduct regulation: the FSA-to-FCA transition; the Senior Managers Regime in banks (2016) and its extension to solo-regulated firms (2019); Consumer Duty (2022–23); and, most recently, the FCA's rules on non-financial misconduct.

The author has led internal investigations, sat across the table from the FCA in supervisory meetings, prepared SMF holders for interview under caution, written Statements of Responsibilities, and built defensible documentation that — when tested — actually held up.

The author has also seen, at first hand, how otherwise capable senior managers lose their careers not because they did the wrong thing, but because they could not prove they did the right thing.