Moriarty comes from the Civil Aviation Authority so does not have direct experience of the audit and accountancy profession, although he trained as an economist and has been in senior regulatory roles for years.

He takes over at the audit regulator as it is going through a major transition period, waiting to set up the new body - the ARGA - while trying to rebuild the reputation of the audit sector, which has come in for criticism over the last couple of years as a result of a number of major audit and accounting scandals including Carillion, HBOS, Thomas Cook and Patisserie Valerie.