Budenberg steps up to chair UKFI

A SHAKE‑UP was unveiled yesterday to the board of UKFI, the arm’s length UK government quango that oversees the taxpayers’ stakes in Britain’s banks including Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds.

UKFI announced that Sir David Cooksey has retired as chairman, to be replaced by the organisation’s chief executive, Robin Budenberg.

Jim O’Neil, who is responsible for the body’s 83 per cent investment in RBS and 41 per cent holding in Lloyds, will become chief executive.

O’Neil, who will take over on 2 April, joined UKFI in October 2010 as head of market investments from Bank of America Merrill Lynch where he spent 17 years. Budenberg will act as executive chairman of UKFI until then.

Cooksey said the past two-and-a-half years had been “extremely challenging” and now was the “right time to hand over”.