Revolving door between regulators and banks alive and well in UK

As the details of Hector Sants compensation package from Barclays trickle out, it should be noted that the revolving door between the regulators and the banks is alive and well in the UK.

Mr. Sants has been hired as the head of compliance by Barclays and will be responsible for the bank's relationship with its regulators.

Readers might recall that Mr. Sants previously headed the UK's Financial Services Authority which supervised Barclays while it was busy manipulating the Libor interest rate benchmark.

Mr. Sants hiring demonstrating that Barclays understands

• the need to be seen offering regulators far more compensation than they could receive as a regulator.  The promise of a big payday helps to keep the regulators from tightly enforcing the regulations as doing so in all likelihood ends the promise of the big payday; and

• that it is Too Big to Fail and Too Big to Jail as Mr. Sants will not have a seat on the board, but rather is there for PR purposes.