Sarah Pritchard

Sarah Pritchard was appointed as the Financial Conduct Authority's first Deputy Chief Executive in June 2025, a newly created role designed to reflect the FCA's expanding remit, including oversight of stablecoins, crypto firms, and buy now, pay later activities. She holds a degree from the University of Cambridge, and earned an MA in History from Cambridge. Her elevation signals the FCA's focus on developing a comprehensive regulatory environment for the crypto and digital assets industry.

Pritchard joined the FCA in June 2021 to jointly lead the supervision, policy and competition division. During her tenure, she led high-profile projects, including changes to the UK's listing rules and policies on financial advice. She led the implementation of the biggest changes to the listing regime in over 3 decades, which aim to support a wider range of companies to issue their shares on a UK exchange, increasing opportunities for investors. She also serves as executive sponsor for the FCA's Edinburgh office, where staff numbers have nearly tripled since her arrival.

Before joining the FCA, Pritchard was Director at the National Economic Crime Centre (NECC), a multi-agency partnership housed in the National Crime Agency, created in late 2018 to deliver improved response to economic crime. She held the position of General Counsel/Legal Director for the National Crime Agency and led the NCA's transformational people programme. In the private sector, she led global financial crime compliance and reputational risk teams at HSBC and qualified as a commercial litigator with Dechert LLP.

Career history

• Deputy Chief Executive, Financial Conduct Authority (June 2025–present)
• Executive Director, Supervision, Policy and Competition Division, FCA (June 2021–June 2025)
• Director, National Economic Crime Centre, National Crime Agency (late 2018–2021)
• General Counsel/Legal Director, National Crime Agency (2015–2018)
• Global Head of Anti-Bribery/Corruption & Global Head of Reputation Risk/Client Selection, HSBC (2013–2015)
• Commercial Litigator, Dechert LLP (government investigative and operational roles also held across career)

What Sarah Pritchard could bring to Deputy Chief Executive at Financial Conduct Authority: Pritchard's combination of deep expertise in financial crime compliance, capital markets regulation, and organizational transformation uniquely positions her to manage the FCA's expanding mandate. Her successful leadership of landmark listing rules reform demonstrates capacity to execute complex regulatory initiatives at scale. Her international regulatory work, including G20/Financial Stability Board work on leverage in non-bank financial institutions, indicates ability to coordinate across domestic and international stakeholders—critical as the FCA strengthens its global influence on crypto regulation, digital assets, and financial stability issues.