Reaching New Heights: The FCA's Nick Cook and Francesca Hopwood Road

I think this is my all-time favorite episode of Barefoot Innovation. We have two guests. Nick Cook has been on the show twice before in his former role as head of regtech at the UK Financial Conduct Authority. He now leads the FCA's newly-created division-level unit on innovation. I believe this model is unique in the world-- a financial regulatory agency establishing a high-level unit that, when staffed out, will have 200 people. Reporting to Nick are two groups. One is the group called Innovate, which includes the FCA's famous regulatory sandbox. The second is the group on regtech and advanced analytics that Nick used to head, himself. And my second guest is his successor in leading that regtech group -- Francesca Hopwood Road. If you're interested in regulatory innovation, today's show may be the single most valuable source you can find on how to do it. Every minute is packed with both fresh information and rare insight about how regulators, themselves, will have to change to keep pace with changing technology.