Peston finds his voice and now the City's ears are burning

When Robert Peston became business editor of the BBC in February 2006, his future stardom could hardly have been foreseen. After a 23-year career in newspapers, including stints at both Independent titles, The Sunday Telegraph and the Financial Times, he had never worked in television. He suffered from a speech impediment and was filling the seat of Jeff Randall, a maverick who had first served in the post five years earlier.

Today Peston, 48, is a news celebrity who has broken so many stories that the markets hang on his every rising inflection. Within minutes of his report of a meeting between bank chiefs and the Chancellor on Tuesday, billions of pounds were wiped off the value of Barclays, RBS and Lloyds TSB. The Daily Mail has branded Peston a "market menace", blogger Guido Fawkes has called for him to be gagged and even the FT is blaming Peston for damaging confidence. Former home secretary Michael Howard has tabled a question in Parliament asking for an inquiry into the leaks which gave him his stories. Having become the face of the crunch, he is now being held responsible.

But what has he done wrong? "In his position, had I had that information, I would have done exactly the same thing," says Randall. "It's absurd and even dangerous for other journalists to criticise one of their own for doing his job so well," says Allister Heath, editor of City A.M. "Peston is now easily the best scoop-breaker in financial journalism."

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The stories Peston has broken would, in all probability, have emerged sooner or later, but City figures argue that his breathless delivery unnecessarily revs up delicate situations. Peter Jay, a former BBC economics editor, says Peston bears a huge responsibility. "Any journalist has to consider what the consequences of his actions will be, and if they will have an anti-social result."

Peston is symptomatic of journalism today, says Jay. "Journalists want to present their stories in a lively way, but it's now common to sex things up. His way of reporting business stories is not one that I personally favour. I don't think that the mission to explain gets much of a look-in. I was not entirely easy about the way in which the Northern Rock story was presented."

During his first 18 months in the job, Peston made little impression, eclipsed by his colleague Evan Davis, then economics editor. All that changed with Peston's disclosure in September last year that Northern Rock was seeking emergency funding from the Bank of England. Overnight, he became a household name.

How Peston landed that scoop remains a mystery but he is a close friend of PR powerhouse Roland Rudd, whose firm, Finsbury, manages the PR for Northern Rock. Their friendship dates back to their time as reporters on the FT in the early 1990s. In addition to Northern Rock, Finsbury handles the PR for Lloyds TSB, whose takeover of HBOS was one of Peston's latest stories. All that is entirely coincidental, according to Rudd, who dismisses any inferences from this link as "ridiculous".

The son of Labour peer Maurice Peston, Robert – now married, with a son, to writer Sian Busby – is a tireless worker. A formidable networker, he is close to the Prime Minister, about whom he wrote a flattering biography, Brown's Britain, in 2005. Some say Peston has become a mouthpiece for the Government. But it has been suggested that animosity towards him from the right-wing media is traceable to a personal vendetta waged by a particular influential media figure.

Elsewhere, Peston has a burgeoning fanbase and has become an unlikely pin-up, called the "crash pash" by one female columnist. His thatch of black hair has been the subject of intrigue for gossip columns – his hair-dresser voluntarily contacted one to confirm it is not dyed – but it's his erratic, sing-song voice that preoccupies most. Peston has undertaken voice-coaching three times a week since joining the BBC, and has by degrees grown in confidence. But there is still work to be done. "He talks like he's writing an article," according to one business editor, "He's too convoluted and doesn't understand that on TV the difference is you only have a split-second to grasp the viewer's attention."

Whatever they say, Peston is a story-gathering phenomenon, a refreshing triumph of substance over style. "They worship him," says a BBC insider. One niggling concern among journalists is that Peston-mania at the Beeb has got out of hand, and that he is no longer answerable to anyone. "All reporters, however good, need somebody above them asking questions," observes one, "If Robert gets something wrong, it could have appalling consequences. But who edits Robert?"