Members of new bank standards body named

A BISHOP, a philosopher and a trade unionist will sit on the board of a new professional body set up to boost standards in the banking industry, writesJamesSalmon.

Announcing the line-up, Dame Colette Bowe, chairman of the Banking Standards Board, pledged to ‘shine a spotlight on competence, culture and patterns of behaviour across the whole banking industry’.

Including Bowe there will be nine people from outside the banking industry on the board. They include the Rt Revd David Urquhart, Bishop of Birmingham, Paul Johnson, director of the Institute of Fiscal Studies, and Sir Brendan Barber, the former chairman of the TUC and currently chairman of the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service Council (ACAS).

The five board members from the industry include Antonio Simoes, the chief executive of HSBC’s UK retail bank and Metro Bank boss Craig Donaldson.

Bowe said: ‘It won’t happen overnight and it will be an uncomfortable journey but the time has come to win back trust.

Bank of England governor Mark Carney said: ‘The independent members will bring a wide range of expertise and working with industry practitioners they can be expected to make significant progress on establishing high standards and restoring trust in the banking sector.’ MORGAN Stanley has taken the extraordinary step of writing down the value of Sports Direct by 20pc due to the influence founder Mike Ashley, pictured, has on the business. It said: ‘We believe that Sports Direct has the potential to replicate its UK success in many European markets. Even after discounting our valuation by 20pc to reflect corporate governance issues.’ The shares rose 11.5p to 620.5p.