The UK's financial regulator has recruited a 30-year FBI veteran.

The Financial Conduct Authority has hired Michael Welch, head of Standard Chartered’s internal investigations unit and a veteran of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, as its new director of retail and regulatory investigations.

Welch was most recently Standard Chartered’s group head of shared investigative services, having moved to London with the bank in 2014 after 30 years with the FBI, where he ran international operations.

He replaces Tom Spender, who left the FCA in June to join Lloyds Banking Group, and will report to Mark Steward, the watchdog’s director of enforcement and market oversight.

A Bloomberg report quoted Standard Chartered’s general counsel, David Fein, as having said that Welch developed the bank's shared investigative services function "as a key part of the group’s conduct programme” and that “his appointment is a credit to him and his achievements with Standard Chartered following his successful career in US law enforcement”. 

Standard Chartered’s investigations unit is staffed by former spies, police detectives, compliance officers and bankers, who are accredited through a programme with the City of London Police, Bloomberg reported.