Clydesdale bank brings new names on board for restructuring

Clydesdale Bank yesterday revealed it had beefed up its boardroom to help steer the group through its restructuring process.

Chairman Sir Malcolm Williamson said the bank’s board had postponed some “business as usual” activities so it could focus on a strategic review, announced last month, which will see around 1,400 jobs lost by the end of 2015.

Williamson said a number of non-executive directors have stayed on beyond their intended retirement dates “to support these activities and will begin to step down as new directors are appointed”.

The bank would not reveal which directors had postponed their retirements, but said it had appointed four non-executives, including David Allvey, the outgoing chairman of Coventry FC stadium owner Arena Coventry. He is also chairman of civil engineering firm Costain Group and senior non-executive director at Friends Provident.

It has also appointed David Browne, most recently head of funding and external relations at investment manager Man Group, and Barbara Ridpath, chief executive of the International Centre for Financial Regulation and former head of ratings in Europe at Standard & Poor’s.

Joining them is Alex Shapland, most recently a partner with PwC’s financial services regulatory practice.

Clydesdale chief executive David Thorburn said 200 employees have already left the group and a further 200 will move to parent company National Australia Bank (NAB) to help manage £6.2 billion of commercial real estate assets that are being transferred.

Last month NAB announced that, on a “cash earnings” basis, its UK banking operations had fallen to a £25 million loss in the first half of the year, compared with a £77m profit in the previous year, reflecting a higher charge on bad debts and higher funding costs.

Accounts published yesterday showed that, within this overall result, Clydesdale Bank posted a statutory loss of £186m for the six months to the end of March, against a loss of £43m a year ago.

It warned that a number of regulatory and legislative changes, including an increase in the bank levy and tougher capital requirements, will hit its future profitability and lending strategy. However, a spokesman insisted this did not mean the bank would rein in lending to consumers or businesses.

Clydesdale also said it was committed to providing free banking for customers, despite Andrew Bailey, executive director for banking supervision at the Bank of England, calling for an end to free current accounts because they distort the supply of banking services and encourage banks to push up fees elsewhere.

The spokesman said: “We’re committed to maintaining choice for customers. We’ve had our Signature account for a number of years and it’s very popular.”