In a move signalling how the UK financial regulator regards wealth management as a major sector in its own right, it has appointed a former Kleinwort Benson chief executive to head up a unit covering the industry.

In a move signalling how the UK financial regulator regards wealth management as a major sector in its own right, it has appointed a former Kleinwort Benson chief executive to head up a unit covering the industry.

The Financial Conduct Authority has appointed Robert Taylor as head of wealth management and private banking in its supervision division. As well as being the former CEO at Kleinwort Benson, a role he held until 2011, he has previously worked at Merrill Lynch, SG Hambros and Coutts.

He takes up his post in February, reporting to Nick Poyntz-Wright, the FCA’s director of long-term savings and pensions.

Since 2011 Taylor has worked across sectors including the investment management industry, academia and the arts. He is currently chairman of the University for Creative Arts and of the Whitechapel Gallery in East London. He is also a director of the East London NHS Foundation Trust.

This publication last year interviewed Clive Adamson, director of supervision at the FCA, who spoke of how the regulator was looking at wealth management as a discrete area of business, and is carrying out a range of reviews and consultations. In 2013, the sector went through arguably the biggest regulatory change in recent times with the advent of the Retail Distribution Review programme of reforms. (To view that interview, see here.)

The FCA pointed out that the wealth management sector employs more than 120,000 people, controlling more than £2 trillion of assets.

“The FCA has committed to supporting the industry as it grows. However, its regulatory focus for the sector is ensuring firms are implementing the new requirements under the Retail Distribution Review; that increased competition is working for the interests of clients; and that wealth managers are adapting to the higher standards set by global regulators,” it said in the statement.

The FCA described how, as CEO at Kleinwort Benson, Taylor rebranded the firm as a UK private bank and restructured its operations.  He was head of private banking at Coutts and managing director of SG Hambros Bank & Trust (London); he started his career as a financial journalist in New York and has worked in the field of US politics.