Samantha Barrass, who has led the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s (SRA) work on licensing alternative business structures, is leaving to become chief executive of the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission.

Ms Barrass will join the commission on 17 February 2014. Currently executive director of supervision, authorisation, and intelligence and investigation, she joined the SRA in 2009 after a career in the UK financial services sector, including a period in senior roles at the Financial Services Authority.

She was one of the first economists employed by the FSA to develop cost-benefit and other evidential techniques for new regulation.

She began her working career at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand as an economist focused on monetary policy strategy and economic reform.

SRA chief executive Antony Townsend, who himself is leaving the organisation, said: “I am particularly grateful to Samantha for her leadership in implementing outcomes-focused regulation and the framework for our licensing of ABSs. In addition, the development of our risk-based approach to regulation has been constant throughout her career here; first in her work with the risk centre and now through her leadership of the R-View change programme. I wish her every success in her new role.”

Commission chairman Alan Whiting said: “With Samantha’s proven high calibre and international experience in financial and legal regulation, I am confident that Gibraltar can look forward to continued growth as a successful, prospering and well regulated financial services sector with a high international reputation.”

Ms Barrass said: “The commission rightly enjoys a strong reputation for delivering high-quality regulation of Gibraltar’s growing and prosperous financial services sector. I am very much looking forward to leading the organisation, working closely with stakeholders, to build on those excellent foundations, further develop Gibraltar’s financial services markets and enhance its reputation for excellent regulation of those markets.”

Tags: Solicitors Regulation Authority