New FSA Gamekeepers

Where do all the unemployed bankers go? To the FSA every one. It could soon be a serious case of poacher turned gamekeeper if the Financial Services Agency has its way.

The FSA which was supposed to police financial shenanigans and didn’t – or at the very least made something of a botch of it – and which has been subsequently heavily criticised – is planning to increase its workforce by a staggering 3000 extra people.

Recruiting started in the Spring when Northern Rock went belly up. Around the world financial outfits of one sort or another have ditched about 300,000 people so far. So the FSA should have a pool of experienced people to tap into. It’s reckoned that some of these will number about 130 supervisory staff.

There has been a welter of financial scandals and bankruptcies. The FSA has not been able to keep up with their scale and their complexity.

With its increased staff two questions spring to mind.

The first is: Will the FSA be more effective with more people? Size very rarely spells competence let alone excellence. And the second question – always relevant in these straitened times – is this: Who pays their wages?

The taxpayer bailed out the city – so presumably it will now have to foot the bill for its watchdogs. It’s to be hoped the newly-appointed Rottweiler’s have real teeth.