James Moore: Hoping BBA's new boss remembers his tin hat
Outlook Has Anthony Browne just taken on the City's toughest job? The new chief executive of the British Bankers' Association spent his life hobnobbing with ministers and civil servants from across Europe, the Middle East and Africa furthering the cause of Morgan Stanley in his last role. Prior to that he was an economic adviser to London Mayor Boris Johnson and he also once headed up Policy Exchange, the think-tank, when it was steering rather too close to David Cameron for the taste of certain right-wing critics.
The industry's thinking in hiring him is clear: the banks want one of their own, an insider, to cosy up to the Government for them. As for the bricks that keep getting lobbed at them from the public and media, well, Mr Browne is a former journalist. But those banking executives who have been accustomed to hiding behind his predecessor Angela Knight might just have to stand up and take some of those themselves.
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