The FCA announced that Mark Steward, executive director of Enforcement and Oversight is stepping down and will be leaving the FCA in Spring 2023.

Steward has been with the FCA since 2015, having joined from the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC).

The FCA will be looking for a qualified replacement who will need to address a number of issues such as the significant backlog of cases, which stood at approximately 7,000 at the end of July 2022, as well as lengthy enforcement case times that averaged over 30 months from opening to closure in 2021/2022.