The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority lost 93 of its most senior staff as part of a “voluntary resignation programme”, prompting fears that star workers are fleeing the watchdog just as it battles the twin crises of Brexit and the pandemic.

Eight of the FCA’s directors and heads of departments, 53 of its managers and 32 of its technical specialists took advantage of the regulator’s so-called mutually agreed resignation scheme in the year to April, according to a Freedom of Information request by Financial News.