Martin Wheatley
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Martin Wheatley is a British financier, formerly managing director of the Consumer and Markets Business Unit of the
Financial Services Authority The Financial Services Authority (FSA) was a quasi-judicial body accountable for the regulation of the financial services industry in the United Kingdom between 2001 and 2013. It was founded as the Securities and Investments Board (SIB) in 1985 ...
in the UK, and is the former CEO of the
Financial Conduct Authority The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is a financial regulatory body in the United Kingdom. It operates independently of the UK Government and is financed by charging fees to members of the financial services industry. The FCA regulates financi ...
.


In London

Wheatley worked for the
London Stock Exchange The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...
for 18 years, including six years on its board. He rose to the position of deputy chief executive, and was closely involved with the failed merger with
Deutsche Börse Deutsche Börse AG (), or the Deutsche Börse Group, is a German multinational corporation that offers a marketplace for organizing the trading of shares and other securities. It is also a transaction services provider, giving companies and inv ...
which resulted in the resignation of the LSE's chief executive Gavin Casey. Wheatley was also Chairman of the FTSE International and sat on the Listing Authority Advisory Committee of the UK Financial Services Authority (FSA). In 2003, Wheatley earned a salary of £224,000 and a bonus of £318,000. However, he was made redundant in February 2004; he was expected to receive a
severance package A severance package is pay and benefits that employees may be entitled to receive when they leave employment at a company unwilfully. In addition to their remaining regular pay, it may include some of the following: * Any additional payment based ...
of at least £210,000.


In Hong Kong

In June 2004, Wheatley joined Hong Kong's
Securities and Futures Commission The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) of Hong Kong is the independent statutory body charged with regulating the securities and futures markets in Hong Kong. The SFC is responsible for fostering an orderly securities and futures markets ...
, the market regulator which oversees the
Hong Kong Stock Exchange The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (, SEHK, also known as Hong Kong Stock Exchange) is a stock exchange based in Hong Kong. It is one of the largest stock exchanges in Asia and the List of major stock exchanges, 9th largest globally by market ...
and the Hong Kong Futures Exchange, as its executive director for market supervision in June 2004. In September 2005, it was announced that he would replace Andrew Sheng as SFC chairman. Sheng had served in that position since 1998. Wheatley became Chief Executive Officer of the SFC on 23 June 2006. Wheatley is a member of the Financial Stability Board Standing Committee on Standards Implementation, as well as the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) Technical Committee. Currently, Wheatley chairs the IOSCO Technical Committee Task Force on Short Selling. Wheatley's tenure at the SFC was marked by aggressive anti-
insider trading Insider trading is the trading of a public company's stock or other securities (such as bonds or stock options) based on material, nonpublic information about the company. In various countries, some kinds of trading based on insider informati ...
enforcement. These included the conviction of Du Jun, a former Morgan Stanley banker who was sentenced to seven years in prison. Among other things, the SFC won its first convictions and jail sentences for insider dealing and the first director disqualifications for listed company misconduct. He also made waves with the SFC case against
Richard Li Richard Li Tzar-kai is a Hong Kong businessman and philanthropist. The founder and chairman of the private investment group Pacific Century Group (PCG), Li started his career in the 1990s with the founding of STAR TV, a pan-Asian televisi ...
's attempt to buy out public shareholders in PCCW and take the company private again, describing the shareholder vote on the issue as marked by "malpractice and manipulation of voting"; the SFC won a case blocking the buyout on appeal. Wheatley's handling of the
Lehman Brothers Lehman Brothers Inc. ( ) was an American global financial services firm founded in 1850. Before filing for bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States (behind Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Merril ...
minibond scandal led to protests by investors who did not receive compensation for their losses. Following Lehman's collapse in September 2008, the SFC secured more than HK$6.5bn (US$835m) in investor compensation from 20 banks and brokers seeking to settle allegations of mis-selling of Lehman-related structured products. Nevertheless, Wheatley was quoted as stating, "I had people marching on the streets with banners with photos of me on them saying go home, death of justice, disgrace. I had noise all day outside my office where they would camp with klaxons and drums. I had a funeral effigy of me burnt outside the office." Wheatley announced his resignation in December 2010, to be effective in mid-2011, roughly three months before the expiration of his contract. Wheatley's total compensation package in 2010 amounted to HK$9.09 million, including HK$7.2 million in basic salary, HK$1.35 million in discretionary pay, and HK$540,000 in retirement scheme contributions. He stated that he would return to Europe to take up a position with a regulatory agency there.


Financial Conduct Authority

The FSA on 2 February 2011 announced the appointment of Wheatley as the new managing director of its Consumer and Markets Business Unit. The appointment was effective from 1 September 2011, and at that time he joined the FSA Board. In a separate announcement made by HM Treasury on the same day, Wheatley was also confirmed as the CEO designate of the Consumer Protection and Markets Authority (CPMA), one of the two successor regulatory bodies that were to be formed from the future division of the FSA. On 1 April 2013 the Financial Services Authority was replaced by the CPMA, renamed as the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and the Prudential Regulation Authority, working alongside the
Financial Policy Committee The Financial Policy Committee (FPC) is an official committee of the Bank of England, modelled on the already well established Monetary Policy Committee. It was announced in 2010 as a new body responsible for monitoring the economy of the United K ...
. The intention was for about 3,000 people from the FSA, including virtually all the support functions, to go to the FCA, which would supervise markets, smaller brokers and advisers and watch how financial institutions of all sizes treat their customers. It was expected to remain in Canary Wharf. It was intended that the FCA would carry on two of the FSA’s biggest projects: the retail distribution review, which focuses on investment products and advice for retail customers, and the mortgage market review. The appointment of Martin Wheatley to be CEO of the FCA was ''not'' approved by the Treasury Select Committee. "The Government did not accept the case for a pre-appointment hearing with the Chief Executive, on the grounds of supposed market sensitivity." In July 2015, Wheatley resigned his post at the FCA following a "vote of no confidence" by the Chancellor,
George Osborne George Gideon Oliver Osborne (born 23 May 1971) is a British retired politician and newspaper editor who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2010 to 2016 and as First Secretary of State from 2015 to 2016 in the Cameron government. A ...
. Tracy McDermott took over from Wheatley at acting FCA chief in September 2015. The next permanent FCA chief executive was Andrew Bailey, who was appointed on 26 January 2016.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wheatley, Martin Hong Kong financial businesspeople Year of birth missing (living people) Hong Kong civil servants British expatriates in Hong Kong Living people Financial Conduct Authority people