The head of asset management supervision at the Financial Conduct Authority, Ed Harley, has left the UK regulator to take up a role at Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

The head of asset management supervision at the Financial Conduct Authority, Ed Harley, has left the UK regulator to take up a role at Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

Harley will join the firm’s asset management unit as a vice president of compliance, having served with the financial watchdog for more than eight years.

A Goldman Sachs Asset Management spokesperson declined to comment on the appointment.

Prior to being head of asset management supervision at the FCA, Harley was head of predecessor, the Financial Services Authority’s asset management department, between July 2010 and April 2013. He also previously served as head of the FSA’s conduct policy department.

Earlier this year, FCA acting director of retail banking Julia Dunn quit the regulator to become chief compliance officer at Nationwide, after previous acting director of retail, Christina Sinclair, joined Barclays as global head of compliance for wealth and investment management.

Their and Harley’s departure comes at a time when experts warn of a regulatory brain drain in Europe's biggest financial hub, London’s City. The number of resignations at the UK regulators, has doubled since the former financial regulator, the FSA, became the FCA and the Prudential Regulatory Authority in April of this year. This has raised concerns about the new bodies' ability to retain staff capable of carrying out tougher, more interventionist regulation. Read more on that trend, here.