Charlotte Crosswell is to step down from her role as chair and trustee of the UK's Open Banking Implementation Entity, kickstarting a reruitment process for a fresh face at the helm as the organisation transitions to a new entity, Open Banking Limited.
Crosswell will retire from the role she took over over from former incumbent Imran Gulamhuseinwala, who quit his post last year after an independent investigation found that leadership failures at the OBIE "allowed a culture of bullying and intimidation".
Crosswell's contract expires in January 2023, when she will be moving on to take over the chair at the Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology (CFIT), an organisation created on the advice of the Kalifa Review to unblock barriers to growth for UK fintech.
At the OBIE, she will be replaced by a new chair appointed by the Competition and Markets Authority.
Sarah Cardell, interim chief executive of the CMA says Crosswell "led important efforts to strengthen the management, governance and workplace culture of the organisation. As Trustee, she has overseen significant progress by the CMA9 banks in meeting their obligations under the Retail Banking Market Investigation Order, and this will enable the implementation phase of the Open Banking remedy to be completed shortly for the majority of the CMA9 banks.”
The competition watchdog says key priorities for the next chair and trustee will include the protection of ongoing CMA Order requirements and the consideration and potential implementation of the Joint Regulatory Oversight Committee’s decisions on the future long-term regulatory framework for Open Banking in the UK.
The Joint Regulatory Oversight Committee (JROC), a cross-authority taskforce convened by the Competition and Markets Authority in March, was established to build on the progress of open banking under a new regulatory regime that will sunset the the Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE) in favour of a new body, with a more broadly-based funding and governance mode.
The Financial Conduct Authority and the Payment Systems Regulator in August recruited Bryan Zhang, co-founder and executive director of the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School, as chair of the working group.
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