he UK’s Financial Services Authority says that John Tiner will step down as its chief executive officer in July.

Tiner, 49, joined the FSA in April 2001 as managing director of the consumer, investment and insurance directorate. He was appointed chief executive in 2003. Previously, he had spent 25 years at Arthur Andersen, where he was head of the global financial services practice. He will continue as CEO and a member of the FSA board until July 2007.

A committee, chaired by FSA chairman Callum McCarthy, is being constituted to conduct the selection process for a successor.

After his departure, Tiner will remain formally an employee of the FSA until January 2008, during which time he will be excluded from any work within the financial services sector or for any UK-listed company.

“By the time I leave in July, I will have spent six years at the FSA, almost four of them as chief executive. The job has been immensely enjoyable and it has been a privilege to lead this organisation and its excellent people. But I would like to do another job in the private sector before I think about retirement and this seems to me to be the right time to pass on the baton, with the FSA set firmly on the road to more principles-based regulation,” Tiner said.