Financial markets regulators have rarely been this high-profile. For the first time, two of the top five in the Financial News list of the 100 most influential people in European financial markets are supervisors, rather than profit-generators. Here Financial News looks at who the most influential regulators are, and why they were picked.

Strict new rules on everything from bonuses to hedge fund marketing have made Europe's regulators more powerful than ever, and this is reflected in the annual FN100. In 2005 and 2006, just one regulator made the top ten; Charlie McCreevy, then European commissioner for the Internal Market and Services.