I suspect few will shed a tear.
Sants has been at the helm of the regulator during the most turbulent time in the watchdog’s history.
It came under fire for its part in the downfall of banking giant RBS and the subsequent catastrophic economic fallout.
He presided over the country’s worst financial crisis in 80 years, the shockwaves of which are still felt today.
But arguably he will be remembered most for his own brand of intensive supervision – something which has most rankled advisers.
His infamous “be afraid, be very afraid” warning to the sector in 2009 was a watershed moment which changed the relationship between the regulator and the regulated.
It put the FSA on a war footing with advisers, and was the prelude to a period in which IFAs came under ever-greater scrutiny and, in the view of some, ‘Big Brother’-style supervision.
The perceived hallmarks of his tenure – over-regulation and bureaucracy – angered advisers and plunged the watchdog to unprecedented depths of unpopularity.
The retail distribution review (RDR) – one of the largest regulatory carve-ups ever in financial services – will be responsible for hundreds of advisers quitting the industry, at least if numerous surveys and polls are to be believed.
But while Sants wore the badge of a hard man, he hit a soft punch.
His reign will be remembered for a number of apologies, u-turns and inconsistencies. His contradictory approach angered people – in one moment telling advisers to be “very afraid” and in the next telling the industry he is not “anti-IFA”.
Advisers never really warmed to him. His decision to step down from the regulator in 2010 (albeit to take up a role with its successor organisation and with the Bank of England) was greeted with relief.
Sants also never really cut it with the trade body for independent advisers, AIFA, while lobby group Adviser Alliance was established to wage war against his policies.
Today’s news comes as no real surprise. The writing has been on the wall for some time and one has to question if Sants’s heart was really in it.
Just recently he admitted he was pushed into applying for the top job and had no ambition to head up the regulator when joining in 2004.
Although Sants was not a popular figure, one gets the impression he tried his best. And in many ways he was given an impossible job. He was arguably passed a poisoned chalice and one has to ask if anyone else could have done much better.
Perhaps history will be kind on Sants. At the moment the wounds he has inflicted on long-suffering IFAs are still sore.
His real legacy will likely depend upon the success, or not, of the RDR. And this will not be apparent for some time yet.
