The Financial Services Authority has announced the appointment of five new senior advisers who will assist the FSA in its work on governance issues. The advisers will provide input into developing the FSA’s regulatory framework for ensuring effective governance in financial institutions and will also contribute to the panel interview process for individuals wishing to take up major board positions in the U.K.’s largest financial institutions.

The new advisers are:

Dominic Cadbury, former chairman and CEO of Cadbury Schweppes;

Sarah Hogg, non-executive chairman on 3i Group, senior independent director of BG Group, non-executive director of Cadbury, chair of Frontier Economics, and deputy chair of the Financial Reporting Council;

Colin Marshall, non-executive chairman of Nomura International and chairman of Pirelli U.K., and a former CEO and chairman of British Airways;

Sir Brian Pitma, senior independent director of Carphone Warehouse Group and senior adviser at Morgan Stanley, and former CEO and chairman of Lloyds Bank.

Sir David Scholey, an adviser to UBS Investment Bank, former chairman and CEO of SG Warburg, and a former member of the Court of the Bank of England and the Board of Banking Supervision.

As part of its new intensive approach to supervision, the FSA has made it clear that it is now seeking to judge competence as well as probity with regard to individuals holding significant influence functions. In October, the FSA wrote to firms to reinforce how its intensive regulatory approach applied to the FSA’s vetting of individuals applying for roles classed as SIFs. This included details about the SIF interview process conducted by a senior panel drawn from the FSA executive and its existing advisory group. These interviews are used to judge the competence and capability of those applying for influential positions within regulated firms.

In future, for key roles in the largest firms, the FSA panel will be joined by one of the new appointees, who will act in an advisory capacity. This is likely to apply to candidates for chair; chief executive; senior independent director; and the chair of audit, remuneration, and risk committees, particularly in the banking and insurance sector.

The new advisers, whose primary focus is on governance and competency, will work with the existing senior advisers who provide specialist input on specific technical areas. These appointments will take effect January 2010. The new advisers will work with Graeme Ashley-Fenn, FSA director of permissions, decisions, and reporting who has responsibility for the SIF approval regime.