The Halifax boss who loves taxi drivers

JAMES Crosby likes taxis. When in London, he always uses them. He enjoys a 'good chat' with the drivers, he says. Which makes Crosby a very brave man.

Many cabbies would gladly have Crosby in the back of their cab, but not for a 'good chat' - a good earful, more likely.

Taxi drivers were top of the list of small businessmen outraged last week after it emerged that they, along with window cleaners, market traders and other heavy users of cash, were not welcome as small-business customers at Halifax branches.

Crosby, 45, is chief executive of HBoS, formed by the merger of Halifax and Bank of Scotland.

The revelation caused acute embarrassment at HBoS's centres of power in Edinburgh and Halifax. Crosby and fellow board members had to move swiftly to stop the incident overshadowing the bank's otherwise strong first full-year results since last year's tie-up.

But Crosby maintains that, despite his frequent journeys by taxi, he has so far avoided confrontation. 'It's surprising,' he says. 'I imagine they know who I am. The rides are all booked on the HBoS account.'

That said, Crosby is chastened by the experience. 'It's good for your ego,' he muses. 'Nothing brought it home more than reading the story in the papers and then getting into a taxi.'

While he is keen to tout for business from cabbies, it seems that customers who deal largely in readies will have to wait another six months for HBoS to hire enough staff to deal with cash-processing as well as upgrading its branch technology.

Crosby also had a less-thanwelcome response from the stock market after raising £1.1 billion in a share placing to help build up its retail and life assurance businesses. Shares in HBoS fell sharply on the news, but Crosby is unabashed.

'We carried out the fourthbiggest placing of shares ever on the UK stock market,' he boasts, rebuffing claims that HBoS, Britain's biggest mortgage lender, was preparing to use the cash to finance a price war with its High Street rivals, especially Lloyds TSB.

'I guess it's old-fashioned, but I believe that a good bank is a financially strong bank,' he says. 'We need to finance our expansion - raising the money before the event is the obvious way.'

Despite the adverse reaction of cabbies and the City, upsetting people does not seem to be Crosby's style. 'The thing I like most about my work is my colleagues,' he says. 'The Number One criterion I apply in a job interview is whether I like the applicant or not.'

Crosby concedes that he is ' sufficiently sensitive' for it to be important that people like him back, and there is the faintest suggestion that behind his tough exterior lurks the need for approval. But he won't let that stop him being firmly in control.

Crosby makes regular appearances on the internal television network at HBoS and often subjects himself to live questionand-answer sessions with staff.

It is clearly important to him that he is seen as approachable and colleagues remark on how he is instantly recognised when visiting branches. One colleague says: 'You can send James Crosby an e-mail saying ''I or you could have done this better'' and it wouldn't be a problem.'

Indeed, Crosby attacks the traditional hierarchy of banks for being 'like the civil service where nobody would take responsibility for their actions'.

The thing he hates most is the 'eternal struggle' to balance the demands of his work with family life. 'I love having time off,' he says in a refreshingly nonworkaholic way.

Crosby, one of the youngest bosses of a FTSE 100 company, says his workload is physically demanding and calls it a ' fortiestype job'. He leaves the family at home in Ilkley to start the week in Edinburgh and shuttles between Scotland, Halifax and London.

He would not be drawn on where his career might take him next, saying only: 'I don't suppose I'll be chief executive of HBoS when I reach retirement age, but I have no specific ambitions. I never planned any aspect of my career, but it would be facile of me to say that I wasn't ambitious.'

In all likelihood, Crosby will pass on his ambition to his daughters, though he jokes that there is 'no way' he would push them into a career in banking - or, indeed, taxi-driving.