The number of staff at the new financial services regulator will be approaching 4,000 by the time it comes into force next month.
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) officially splits into the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulatory Authority (PRA) on 1 April.
According to a Freedom of Information (FoI) request submitted by IFAonline, the FSA has already begun bumping up staff numbers in preparation for the changes.
By the end of January this year, it had a total of 3,817 staff, some 136 more than at the same point the previous year.
And the FoI data suggested staff numbers will increase again to 3,960 in April when legal cutover (LCO) from FSA to FCA and PRA is completed. The FCA will have a projected 2,900 and the PRA will have 1,060 staff.
The jump means the overall number of staff at the regulator will have increased by 8% over that 15-month period.
In a statement, the FSA said: "The [number of staff] will see the FCA ensure it can deliver against its objectives, and therefore 2,900 is not a fixed number and may vary depending on changes in the external environment and the organisation's scope."
The statement also said that all FSA staff have Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employment (TUPE) and that, if they are in their roles immediately before LCO, their employment must transfer.
"The regulator has identified the work which will transfer to the Bank [of England] and PRA at LCO and remaining staff will continue in employment with the FCA. Further to this there have been a number of new roles created by the new regime."
