Passmore & Oliver Partners expands into financial services regulation with ex-FCA hire

Passmore & Oliver Partners, the regulatory consultancy founded last year by two former senior leaders at the Solicitors Regulation Authority, is crossing into financial services regulation with the hire of a former Financial Conduct Authority figure.

A new practice led from inside the FCA

Alex Roy will join the firm on 1 September to lead the new financial services offering. He spent eight years at the FCA, working across banking, payments, insurance and retail investment, before moving to EY, where he led the Big Four firm's regulatory insights function. Earlier in his career he was head of development and research at the Legal Services Board.

The appointment reflects a shift in how legal and financial services overlap in practice. Law firms increasingly offer financial services as exempt professional firms, run claims management businesses alongside their practices, or sit within group structures that span both sectors. Passmore & Oliver says those clients need one adviser who understands both rulebooks.

'Financial and legal services have never really been separate worlds'

Crispin Passmore, who was executive director of the SRA, said the expansion was a natural step.

'Financial services and legal services have never really been separate worlds for the clients we work with,' he said. 'Alex has sat inside the FCA, inside a Big Four regulatory practice, and inside the legal sector's own regulator. That combination is genuinely rare, and it means we can now offer one team that speaks fluently across both perimeters.'

Juliet Oliver, a former deputy chief executive and general counsel at the SRA, co-founded the consultancy with Passmore. The pair set up the firm to offer senior-led regulatory advice without the overhead and bureaucracy of larger consultancies.

Why the dual perimeter matters now

The move comes as the boundary between legal and financial services regulation becomes harder to draw. Firms that handle client money, offer investment advice, or operate within wider corporate groups can find themselves regulated by both the SRA and the FCA. Misreading either regime can create compliance risk, particularly where the two frameworks use similar language but impose different obligations.

Roy said the firm's model was the attraction.

'Crispin and Juliet have built exactly the kind of firm I wanted to join: senior people doing the work themselves, with low overheads and no bureaucracy,' he said. 'That means we can bring deep regulatory expertise to bear directly on the commercial issues our clients face.'

What Passmore & Oliver brings to the market

The consultancy launched in 2025 with a focus on SRA regulation, drawing on Passmore and Oliver's experience inside the profession's main regulator. With Roy's appointment, it is positioning itself as a rare provider that can advise on both SRA and FCA-facing issues from a single team.

For law firms and legal services businesses operating at the edge of financial services, that could matter. Many have grown into the FCA's territory through claims management, alternative business structures, or group structures that include regulated financial entities. Having advisers who understand both the SRA Handbook and the FCA's perimeter guidance can reduce the risk of a compliance gap.

The hire also underlines a broader trend: as regulation becomes more complex, specialist consultancies led by former regulators are competing with larger advisory firms by offering direct access to senior expertise. Passmore & Oliver's pitch is that clients deal with the people who actually ran the regimes, not junior teams billing by the hour.