MOVES - David Roberts retires after regulatory and banking career
David Roberts is retiring from his role as a technical specialist for wholesale banking at the Financial Conduct Authority after nearly 40 years in the banking industry and a career in the syndicated loan markets.
Roberts joined the UK regulator in 2014 in a supervisory "poacher turned gamekeeper" role looking after large wholesale banks and then became a “conduct ambassador” to roll out the FCA’s conduct and culture framework to wholesale banks.
He subsequently monitored and reported on events including MiFid II underwriting and placement, conflicts of interest, and allocation justification records for new bond issues, among others, and worked with trade associations and other stakeholders to highlight issues in corporate and investment banking.
Most recently Roberts was seconded to the FCA’s Market Intelligence and Engagement team to work on sustainable finance and was involved with the FCA’s salvo to lenders on sustainability-linked loans in June that was designed to help the UK regulator identify measures that might improve the product’s integrity and lead to an improvement in SLL standards.
Roberts started as a management trainee at Lloyds Bank in the 1970s as a retail banker lending to small businesses in Manchester and the North West for a decade. After an internal audit role at Union des Banques Arabes et Francais London, he returned to Lloyds in the mid-80s as head of the secondary desk and sold the bank's Asian book as Lloyds shed its international business.
He was appointed as head of Lloyds' loan syndications in June 1989, the first of a string of roles as a loan syndicate and DCM head. Roberts became head of debt capital markets at Danske Bank in 1996 and head of loan syndications at Nordea in 2001, followed by a senior consultant role in debt and real estate advisory at KPMG in September 2005.
He joined Fortis in 2006 as head of loan syndications before the bank's merger with BNP Paribas and then moved into BNPP's UK compliance services, a focus he maintained in several roles before joining the FCA.
Roberts, a keen sailor, plans to pursue interests that include travelling and redoing his Yachtmaster qualification.