Sir Howard Davies finally takes up RBS director role

Taxpayer-backed Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has announced the appointment of soon-to-be chairman Sir Howard Davies as non-executive director.

The Edinburgh-based lender said in a statement that Davies will join in his new role with immediate effect, before taking up his role as chairman on 1 September.

It was originally planned that Sir Howard would take up his non-exec position with immediately after the bank’s annual general meeting on June 23, however, that move was delayed until the final report of the UK Airports Commission, chaired by Sir Howard, was published.

Sir Howard will still succeed Sir Philip Hampton as chairman of the state-backed lender on September 1, as originally planned, the bank said.

An RBS statement said: “The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc announces that, further to its announcement on June 22, 2015, Sir Howard Davies will join the Board as a Non-executive Director with immediate effect. He will assume the role of chairman on September 1, 2015.”

Sir Howard’s appointment as the next RBS chairman was confirmed by the bank on February 26.

He was presented by the bank as having an “extraordinary breadth” of experience across the financial services sector, having previously been chairman of the Financial Services Authority, deputy governor of the Bank of England, director general of the Confederation of British Industry and CEO of the Audit Commission.

He will continue to serve as a non-executive director of Prudential and professor of practice at Sciences Po, Paris alongside his role at RBS.

However he will relinquish his non-executive roles at Phoenix Group and Morgan Stanley.

Sir Howard’s arrival on the board comes after the UK Government said last week that it hopes to raise at least £25 billion by selling three-quarters of its stake in RBS.

It wants to offload £2bn in the current fiscal year with between £5.8bn and £6bn in each of the following years by the end of the decade.