Sir Howard Davies to become chairman of RBS

Sir Howard Davies will take over as chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland, according to a report.

Davies, who currently heads the Airports Commission, will take over from outgoing chairman Sir Philip Hampton in the summer.

An official announcement of the move is expected this Friday (27 February) when RBS reports its results, said the Financial Times.

Davies ran the Financial Service Authority from 1997 until 2003 and oversaw the regulator as it tackled the mis-selling of endowment mortgages, and extended regulation to a number of areas of corporate and investment banking, as well as mortgage advice and the regime for IFAs.

The FSA was converted into the Financial Conduct Authority following the financial crash and regulation of the city split between it and the Bank of England.

More recently, Davies held a directorship at the London School of Economics from 2003 to May 2011. He sits on the board of Morgan Stanley, and was previously on the advisory board of RBS unit NatWest.

Davies is also chairman of insurance business Phoenix.

Sir Philip Hampton is to become chairman of the pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline.