Former UK FSA chief Sants may join Deloitte: source

Hector Sants, a former head of Britain's financial watchdog, may join Deloitte and become the latest in a string of regulators to join one of the 'Big Four' accounting and consultancy firms, a source said.

A welter of new regulation is hitting banks and other financial firms to apply lessons from the financial crisis, putting expertise in regulation at a premium.

Talks between Deloitte and Sants, who stepped down as Financial Services Authority chief in June, were at an "early stage", a person familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

Deloitte and the FSA declined to comment.

Sants was paid 836,000 pounds ($1.35 million) for the 2011/12 financial year.

The FSA is being scrapped in April as part of a shake-up of supervision that will make the Bank of England the main banking supervisor.

It has triggered a string of departures from the FSA for the deep pockets of the private sector. Margaret Cole, former head of enforcement, left earlier this year to join PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Jon Pain left last year to work for KPMG, while Thomas Huertas, a former FSA banking supervisor, is now part of Ernst & Young's regulatory team.

(Reporting by Steve Slater and Huw Jones; Editing by Dan Lalor)