Simpson quits banking giant HBOS

LORD Simpson, the discredited former boss of beleaguered telecoms group Marconi, bowed to shareholder pressure on Sunday night and announced he was standing down as a non-executive director of banking group HBOS.

The man who presided over the near collapse of what was once one of Britain's best run companies said he had no wish to carry on at HBOS - formed last year from the merger of Bank of Scotland and Halifax - beyond the annual meeting in May.

The bank quickly sprang to Lord Simpson's defence and claimed that he had originally signalled his intention to stand down late last year. But weekend speculation that Simpson, once tipped as a future chairman, was facing growing pressure from the bank's leading shareholders to go apparently prompted the

A spokesman said: 'He was under no pressure to go. This was his decision. He came to us late last year and said he would not be staying on. There will be no pay-off. Lord Simpson is going because he wants to pursue private equity opportunities and he could no longer spare the time. We are grateful to him for his advance notice because it means we can begin looking for a replacement.'

Simpson joined the board of Bank of Scotland just last year so it is curious that he made such an early decision to quit his part-time role. There is little doubt that the reaction from shareholders when he stood for re-election in May would have been very mixed.

It is highly unlikely that blue-chip institutions at HBOS would have felt comfortable voting for Simpson in what would have amounted to a gesture of confidence in his managerial abilities.

Under his leadership, thousands of Marconi workers lost their jobs as the shares crashed from 1250p to 15p at one stage. Debts ballooned before Simpson, the chief executive, finally left - compounding the anger by accepting a £2.8m pay-off condemned as a 'slap in the face' by the workers.