The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has appointed six directors as it expands its headcount.

The appointments add to the almost 500 new colleagues the FCA will have recruited between January and the end of July this year.

Roma Pearson has been appointed as the FCA’s director of consumer finance, responsible for the supervision and policy development in the consumer lending and mortgages sectors. She has been at the FCA and its predecessors since 1996, most recently as a head of department in the risk and compliance oversight division. She will take up her new position in July.

Camille Blackburn will join the FCA in October to the newly created role of director of wholesale buy-side. In her new role, she will be responsible for policy development and the effective supervision across asset management, alternative investments, custody banks and investment research. She will join the FCA from Legal & General Investment Management, where she is currently global chief compliance officer.

Matthew Long has been appointed as director of payments and digital assets, a new role overseeing the e-money, payment and crypto-asset markets and leading related policy development. He is currently a director within the National Economic Crime Command within the National Crime Agency, which has a strategic leadership role for economic crime and illicit finance. He also led the UK Financial Intelligence Unit. He will join the FCA in October.  

Meanwhile, Anthony Monaghan has been promoted within the FCA to director of retail and regulatory investigations, which he has been covering on an interim basis since April 2021. He will be responsible for the FCA’s regulatory investigations in sectors including banking, insurance, financial advice and personal pensions. Monaghan has been at the FCA since 2010, most recently as head of retail & regulatory investigations within the regulator’s enforcement and market oversight division.

Karen Baxter will join the FCA’s enforcement team as director of strategy, policy, international and intelligence. In her role, she will lead the specialised functions that support the breadth of the FCA’s enforcement and market oversight activities, helping ensure it has the tools it needs to do its work effectively. Baxter will join the FCA in September. She had a 30-year policing career, holding senior roles including as commander and national coordinator for economic crime at the City of London Police. She is an Ofcom board member for Northern Ireland, having been appointed by the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport in March 2022.

Simon Walls, who was appointed interim director in May, will continue in the role of director of wholesale, sell-side on a permanent basis.

Nikhil Rathi, chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority, said: “As our remit grows and to deliver on our ambitious strategy, we’re continuing to develop and bring in the skills and talent we need.

“My executive committee colleagues and I are delighted to announce the latest additions to our leadership team, who will each bring deep expertise and broad experience to the FCA.”