Britain has named former industry boss Adair Turner as chairman of its financial regulator, charged with restoring confidence in a watchdog battered by the near-collapse of Northern Rock and the wider credit crunch.
Turner, who had been widely tipped as a favourite for the job, will replace the current chairman of the Financial Services Authority, Callum McCarthy, when he retires in September - a year after the debacle at Britain's fifth-largest mortgage lender and the first run on a UK bank in more than a century.
The Northern Rock crisis brought stinging accusations from politicians and business leaders that the FSA was "asleep at the wheel" and failed to prevent the crisis, plunging the regulator into the deepest crisis since it was set up eight years ago.
A former director-general of the Confederation of British Industry and former vice chairman of investment bank Merrill Lynch in Europe, Turner will lead the FSA as it wrestles with the challenge of rebuilding a tarnished reputation and negotiates changes to Britain's regulatory regime.
The former McKinsey director is seen by many in the industry as a positive mix of industry experience and political nous - key to the FSA as Britain reviews its system for sharing financial regulation between the FSA, the Bank of England and the Treasury, and on the international stage.
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