Former Scottish National Party MP George Kerevan has said he will run for the chairmanship of the Financial Conduct Authority, the UK’s financial regulator, vowing to publish a controversial report into Royal Bank of Scotland on his first day, according to a report in the Financial Times.
The FT report said Kerevan told a conference held by the SME Alliance on Wednesday that he will apply for the top job at the FCA after its current chairman, John Griffith-Jones, steps down next year.
Kerevan, 67, who was a member of the UK Treasury select committee while he was an MP, said he has five priorities, including publishing a report into RBS’s Global Restructuring Group (GRG), the report said.
The GRG is being investigated by the FCA over allegations it harmed 12,000 small businesses, including some that make up the SME Alliance.
The FCA has rejected calls to publish a report into allegations that the RBS GRG bankrupted small companies to pick up their assets on the cheap.
Instead, the FCA said it would soon release a detailed summary.
“I will publish the report on my first day,” Kerevan said, adding that one of his priorities was increasing transparency at the regulator, the FT report said.
Kerevan said his other four aims are promoting consumer protection, increasing the FCA’s independence from the UK Treasury, increasing FCA resources, and bolstering the FCA’s competition mandate to allow challenger banks to better compete with high street lenders, the report said.
Kerevan said that he would be “surprised” if he got the job but that he wanted to stimulate debate about how the chairman of the FCA is chosen, the report said.