Saville quits on Crest of a wave

IAIN Saville, chief executive of the Crest share settlement system and director of the business since its launch eight years ago, is to quit. He is to become European managing director of Computershare, an Australian-based business which provides a global service for issuing companies.

Another of Crest's founding team, Hugh Simpson, will take over as interim head pending a search by headhunters for a new chief.

Saville has ferociously defended the system over the years against those who pointed out its occasional shortcomings and he says it gives him particular satisfaction to leave now because all the criticisms have been answered and the system is robust and able to handle any volume thrown at it. The project with the London Clearing House to create a central counterparty for the London Stock Exchange is also nearing completion.

Conspiracy theorists may suspect he has been eased out by Crest's recently appointed chairman, ex-Treasury mandarin Sir Nigel Wicks, to make it easier for Crest to consolidate with another European settlement system, but Saville said: 'There has been absolutely no falling out. I have been here eight years, I am 53 and if I was going to move this was the time to do it.'