Pan-European securities watchdog the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has elected Martin Wheatley, head of the consumer and markets business unit at UK regulator the Financial Services Authority, to its management board.
Wheatley – who will also become CEO of the Consumer Protection and Markets Authority, one of two new bodies that will be established at the end of 2012 to replace the FSA – replaces Alexander Justham who recently left his post at the UK regulator.
ESMA’s management board comprises six members and deals with the authority’s organisational issues. Wheatley’s term is scheduled to last until July 2013.
“ESMA has a very important role to play in the regulation of the EU financial markets. I am therefore very pleased to be closely involved in ESMA’s future development and thank the members of the ESMA board of supervisors for electing me to the management board,” said Wheatley.
Along with Wheatley, ESMA’s management board comprises: Karl-Burkhard Caspari at German regulator BaFin; Jean Guill of Luxembourg’s CSSF; Raul Malmstein at Estonian watchdog Finantsinspektsioon; Kurt Pribil of Austria’s Finanzmarktaufsicht; and Fernando Restoy from Spanish regulator CNMV.
Prior to joining the FSA, Wheatley was CEO of the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong, having previously spent 18 years at the London Stock Exchange, including a period as deputy CEO.