Mick McAteer is an experienced advocate for economic and social justice. His work focuses on three areas: economic and social justice and rights; financial system reform; and the role of technology and data in society, particularly on how finance/ data/ technology intersects.
He is founder and Co-Director of The Financial Inclusion Centre, a UK not-for-profit policy and research group. The Centre’s mission is to promote a financial system and markets that works for the environment, real economy, and society. He is a director of Action for Financial Inclusion (AfFI), a community interest company set up to turn policy ideas for promoting financial inclusion into action.
He is Chair of non-profit Registry Trust which operates the Register of Judgments for the Ministry of Justice, a board member of the Irish Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman, a board member of the Consumer Council for Northern Ireland (CCNI), and on the Bank of England’s Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) Engagement Forum.
Previously, he was Chair of the anti-poverty charity Z2K, and Deputy Chair of the Consumer Council of Northern Ireland. He was a member of the UK Regulators Network (UKRN) Expert Panel.
He was a board member of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)/ Financial Services Authority (FSA), chaired the FCA’s External Risk and Strategy Committee, and was on the FCA’s Audit Committee and FSA Oversight Committee that implemented the split of the FSA into the FCA and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA).
At EU level, he was Chair of the European Commission’s Financial Services User Group (FSUG) which advises the European Commission and other EU policymakers on matters relating to financial markets and affecting financial users.
He was with Which? (the UK’s most influential consumer group and largest consumer group in Europe) for 13 years and formulated the organisation’s policy on financial services. He led the work on exposing major scandals such as pensions, mortgage endowment and PPI mis-selling, and work on reform of pensions, insurance, and banking industries. Prior to this, he worked for five years for two major fund management firms in the City of London.
He was a board member of the Financial Reporting Council’s (FRC) Professional Oversight Board, a non-executive director of The Pensions Advisory Service (TPAS), and a board member of ShareAction (the movement for Responsible Investment), and board member of CARITAS (Westminster).