Avanthi Weerasinghe

Head of Market Practice and Regulatory Policy at UK Finance

Speaker

Avanthi is the Head of Market Practice & Regulatory Policy at UK Finance and leads on UK capital market regulatory reforms.

Before joining UK Finance in 2022, Avanthi spent a significant part of her career as a financial services regulator, including as a Technical Specialist at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK. At the FCA, she held various roles within its Capital Markets Division, including implementing key regulatory frameworks such as the listing regime, Market Abuse Regulation and MiFID II/ MiFIR. Avanthi also led trading venue supervision, developed risk mitigation strategies for regulated firms, and was instrumental in formulating sector views - an intelligence driven risk identification tool that guided the FCA’s strategic business planning.

In 2021, Avanthi led the FCA’s contribution to the IMF’s Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP), a major initiative assessing the resilience of the UK’s financial system. Prior to joining the FCA, Avanthi held various regulatory roles.
Avanthi is a dual-qualified lawyer in England and Wales, as well as in Sri Lanka and sits on the Membership and Communications Committee of the Law Society of England and Wales.