Former Virgin Money boss appointed to Financial Policy Committee

Dame Colette Bowe (left)
and Dame Jayne-Anne Gadhia 

Dame Colette and Dame Jayne-Anne will replace Richard Sharp and Martin Taylor, who are stepping down at the end of Q1 2019 and Q2 2019 respectively.

Dame Jayne-Anne will take up her role in time for the FPC’s Q2 2019 round of meetings, with Dame Colette taking up her role in time for the FPC’s Q3 2019 round of meetings. Both Dame Colette and Dame Jayne-Anne will serve three-year terms.

Dame Jayne-Anne was the CEO of Virgin Money from 2007 until 2018, regularly attended the Prime Minister’s Business Advisory Council, and served as a member of the Mayor of London’s Business Advisory Board.

She has represented the UK finance industry as a board member of UK Finance and currently provides industry input to the FCA through her membership of the FCA Practitioner Panel. She also led the Government’s review into equality and inclusion in financial services as the Women in Finance Champion.

As well as being chair of the Banking Standards Board, Dame Colette, is also a trustee of the IFRS Foundation, a trustee of the Nuffield Foundation, and a visiting fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford. Until recently she was also a board member of the UK Statistics Authority and the Department for Transport.

Prior to her role at the Banking Standards Board, Dame Colette was chair of Ofcom (2009-2014) and held board memberships at Morgan Stanley Bank International (2005-2011), Axa Investment Managers (2012-2014) and executive chairman of Electra Private Equity (2010-2014), among other positions.

Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England, said: “I am delighted to welcome the appointment of Colette and Jayne-Anne to the Financial Policy Committee.

“As Chair of the Banking Standards Board, Colette has led the way in developing and embedding better standards of conduct across the banking sector. Her experience in the private sector and handling some of the biggest regulatory challenges of our times will also be extremely valuable to the Committee’s deliberations in the coming years.

“Jayne-Anne brings deep and relevant experience in retail banking and her successful business career. In her public policy she has championed the transformative impact of adopting new technologies and of greater diversity within the workforce of the financial services industry. We also greatly look forward to her contributions to the work of the Committee.”