Financial Services Authority (FSA)

Financial Services Authority (FSA) 2024 graduate opportunities}

Company Company Profile

As the sole financial regulator for the UK, the FSA has a unique and influential role delivering benefits to firms and consumers alike. Our remit is broad and our influence profound, from ensuring people get a fair deal in their financial services to maintaining London’s status as a world-leading international financial centre.

For our people that means an unmatched insight into the financial services sector and the challenge of overseeing and underpinning a complex, diverse and continually evolving industry that makes up 9% of the nation's GDP. Because our work has universal consequences, both for the financial services sector and consumers, everything we do is under the spotlight. This means that along with considerable personal influence comes high visibility and responsibility.

Nowhere is this influence clearer than in our relationship with firms. Working within one of our supervisory areas you’ll have the chance to watch over some of the biggest names in the financial world in areas as universal as banking, pensions, mortgages and insurance. And you’ll be joining us at a critical time. We’re adding significantly to our supervision and prudential risk teams now to ensure we can promote stability through a crucial period for the UK’s financial sector.

Case Studies

  • Name: Giles Fairhead
  • Role: Associate, promoted to Relationship Manager

My science background was a great preparation for my role, it not only taught me to be detail conscious, but also equipped me with the kind of methodical approach that’s invaluable in this job. Whilst the job has been challenging, my lack of previous financial experience has not held me back from developing a successful career with the FSA.

Training & Profiles

Following comprehensive training, you will have responsibility for supervising medium sized firms, or assisting in the supervision of larger firms. Working within the FSA's risk management process ARROW, you will identify key risks in firms and make recommendations as to how such risks should be mitigated. You will then oversee the application of such mitigation measures. You will do this using a variety of tools such as firm visits, desk based reviews and working with specialist colleagues. In doing so you will gain a thorough understanding of what the key issues are for the firms, and what challenges they face in improving their practices.

You will also be a firm's main day-to-day contact with the FSA and it is essential that you are able to present yourself and the FSA in a professional and credible manner.

A key responsibility will be to gather and analyse a variety of information. You will present recommendations for action, based on this analysis to senior committees. Your ability to capture critical information and deduce the key issues will, therefore, help us to operate in a more principles-based approach to regulation.

We are looking for candidates from a variety of backgrounds including Science and Engineering, and second jobbers who have completed a graduate scheme within or outside of the financial services industry with the following skills:

  • Strong analytical skills
  • Intellectual ability
  • Good relationship building skills
  • Strong communication skills

We’ll give you the training to expand your current skills, experience and knowledge.

Application Procedure

For more information and other career opportunities, visit our website.