MGAM's Smith tipped to chair BoS

ROBERT SMITH, the chief executive of Morgan Grenfell Asset Management, is being lined up as a potential candidate for the job of governor of the Bank of Scotland.

The governorship is a highly sensitive issue. Sir Alistair Grant, as governor, as the bank's chairman is known, stepped down temporarily in May after less than a year because of ill health.

Although at the time the decision was announced, Sir Alistair, the former head of supermarket giant Safeways, said he was planning to return to the job, he is understood to be thinking of retiring permanently because of the severity of his illness. Sir Alistair has also had to step down for the time being as chairman of Scottish & Newcastle, the Scottish brewer.

The other main contender for the post at the Bank of Scotland is Sir John "Jack" Shaw, the former head of Scottish Financial Enterprise, the Scottish financial industry lobby group, who was Sir Alistair's deputy at the bank.