Headcount in the Financial Conduct Authority’s Scottish office jumped by only 18% in the two years after the watchdog’s 2019 pledge to double its workforce there, Financial News can reveal, amid questions over the regulator’s recruitment strategy in its Edinburgh outpost. 

The FCA first vowed to double headcount in its Scotland office in its 2018/2019 annual report, published in July 2019 in an effort to “build stronger functions in retail lending, investment and intermediaries, as well as our casework with financial advisers, wealth managers and pension scams”.