Northern Rock CFO steps down due to FSA probe
The finance director in charge of bailed-out bank Northern Rock Asset Management steps down following an FSA probe
Northern Rock Asset Management’s chief financial officer David Jones, who was
at the helm when the bank was rescued, is stepping down from his role with
immediate effect to focus on a Financial Services Authority investigation.
Jones took up the finance director role at Northern Rock in 2007 having been
deputy FD for the previous seven years.
Following the bank’s bailout in 2008, in which Anne Godbehere was appointed
chief financial officer, Jones took up a senior finance role at the Rock.
Godbehere stepped down from her role in 2009.
At the start of the year the bank restructured into two separate entities –
Northern Rock Asset Management (NRAM) and Northern Rock plc.
Jones, who has been with the bank for 14 years, was appointed chief financial
officer of NRAM on 1 January this year while Jim McConville was recruited to CFO
at Northern Rock plc.
In a statement NRAM said Jones was stepping down “to focus on an ongoing FSA
investigation into matters relating to a period before the company entered
public ownership”.
He is succeeded by Hugh Graham, the bank’s head of treasury operation, on an
interim basis. Graham has previously worked as treasurer at Zurich Financial
Services and Barclays Bank.
NRAM kept approximately £50bn out of £60bn of so-called “toxic assets” –
namely residential mortgages, unsecured loans of £3.9bn plus the government
bailout.
Northern Rock plc was given the remaining £10bn of mortgage loans, the
retail deposit and savings book, among other loans.
Last week the FSA fined both the former deputy chief executive and former
managing credit director at the pre-restructured bank a total of £644,000.
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