eFinancialCareers

A clear favourite has emerged as the next chairman of Royal Bank of Scotland in the form of John McFarlane, who currently sits on the bank’s board as non-executive director. However, a political battle has begun to take shape and other candidates are emerging from the woodwork.

The appointment of McFarlane, a Scot who was previously chief exec of Australia and New Zealand banking group ANZ, would ease the sensitivities raised by the choice of an Englishman, Stephen Hester, as the new chief executive.

However, Labour’s Scottish finance spokesman, Andrew Kerr, yesterday demanded a “break from the past”, and McFarlane’s current position on the RBS board would rule him out in that regard. He’s also on the board of Toscafund Asset Management, one of those dastardly hedge funds, or “spivs and speculators”, as Alex Salmond likes to call them. The short selling of financial stocks by hedge funds is thought to have contributed to the crisis at Scotland’s other major bank, HBOS.

The favoured choice of the new management, ie, the government, would be Sir Philip Hampton, chairman of J Sainsbury and former finance director at Lloyds TSB, but he’s not keen to take up the post.

Another person in the frame is former Financial Services Authority chairman Sir Callum McCarthy, who would also tick the Scottish box as well as being an injection of new blood at RBS.

Are any of these players the right choice to head up the new era at RBS? Are there any other names that should be placed in the hat? Your thoughts please….