Bankers' association boss Angela Knight to leave

The banking sector's chief advocate during a time of "extraordinary difficulty" for the industry is to step down after five years at the helm.

Angela Knight, 61, will leave her post as chief executive of the British Bankers' Association this summer after acting as a spokeswoman for the industry through a "crisis of a magnitude that few if any have seen before or expected".

The former Conservative MP, who took up the post on April 1 2007, represented the industry during the biggest run on a British bank - Northern Rock - the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the part-nationalisation of Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland.

And Ms Knight has more recently been dealing with the ongoing bonus furore, fending off claims of unbridled excess and a fat cat culture in the City.

The University of Bristol graduate said: "The UK banking industry has already undergone radical restructuring to make it fit for the future and I am pleased to have played a part in this."

The chief executive will stay on while the search for her successor is completed, the BBA said.

She went on: "I have been at the British Bankers' Association at a time of extraordinary difficulty and during a crisis of a magnitude that few if any have seen before or expected.

"The BBA has played a strong part throughout this challenging period and has helped the industry it represents with the significant changes to regulation and legislation required."

She added: "I leave the BBA in good health and heart."

Prior to joining the BBA, the spokeswoman was chief executive of the Association of Private Client Investment Managers and Stockbrokers from September 1997 to December 2006.

She was a Conservative councillor and chief whip on Sheffield City Council from 1987 to 1992 and entered parliament in 1992 before serving as economic secretary to the Treasury between 1995 and 1997.

Ms Knight previously set up and ran a specialist contract heat treatment company treating precision engineering components - Cook & Knight Metallurgical Processors.

PA