A total of 121 employees resigned from the FSA between the beginning of April and the start of July – up 138% from the 53 who left in the same period last year, according to the Financial Times.
This is also a 95% increase from the first quarter of this year, according to statistics obtained by law firm Reynolds Porter Chamberlain through a freedom of information request.
Although Hector Sants, chief executive, agreed to stay on through the reorganisation, his deputies Sally Dewar and Jon Pain, and Mark Norris, the chief operating officer, will leave.
They are among 183 people to resign from the FSA between January 1 and July 2 which is higher than the total who left during 2009.
“It is not surprising that in an organisation with tremendous uncertainty, anybody who is any good will go elsewhere,” said Jonathan Davies, a partner at RPC.
The turmoil at the FSA also coincides with the recruitment resurgence in the rest of the City.
The latest hiring survey by recruitment group Morgan McKinley found new job opportunities in the financial services sector were up 49% year on year in June and the average starting salary was up 6%.
However, FSA officials pointed out the second quarter had seen a large spike in resignations for each of the past three years and that the agency’s headcount has been increasing steadily.
The departures remain a small fraction of the roughly 3,600 people who work at the regulator.
“Uncertainty about the organisation’s future earlier this year undoubtedly created challenges but our recruitment success remains strong,” said Kirsty Clay, for the FSA.
“Whilst we had 121 resignations last quarter, 328 people accepted jobs with us during the same period. Our staff turnover rate for the second quarter was 6.8% but we continue to grow our overall staff numbers.”
