FSA to hire 450 staff for market abuse crackdown

The FSA is looking to hire an extra 450 staff to crackdown on insider dealing, Hector Sants has revealed.

The expansion, which will cost an extra £41m, will help the FSA tackle "unacceptably high levels of market abuse" Sants said in a weekend interview.

However, Sants says he does not believe the UK is any worse than other major financial centres, but believes they should not be considered a benchmark.

Further details of how the FSA will use these new staff are expected in this week's business strategy report.

New hires will include investigative lawyers and experts in capital requirements and macro-prudential regulation.

The news follows on from Sants's speech at the Annual Lubbock Lecture in Oxford, where he outlined FSA plans to intervene earlier to prevent consumer detriment and market risks.

The FSA currently has 500 staff tacking insider dealing and market abuse, and the organisation's total staffing is expected to rise to 3,700.