James Robert Crosby (born 14 March 1956) is an English banker. He was Deputy Chairman of the
Financial Services Authority from January 2004 until he resigned on 11 February 2006. He had previously been the chief executive of
Halifax Bank
Halifax (previously known as Halifax Building Society and colloquially known as The Halifax) is a British banking brand operating as a trading division of Bank of Scotland, itself a wholly owned subsidiary of Lloyds Banking Group.
It is named ...
until its merger with
Bank of Scotland
The Bank of Scotland plc (Scottish Gaelic: ''Banca na h-Alba'') is a commercial and clearing bank based in Scotland and is part of the Lloyds Banking Group, following the Bank of Scotland's implosion in 2008. The bank was established by th ...
to form
HBOS
HBOS plc was a banking and insurance company in the United Kingdom, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Lloyds Banking Group, having been taken over in January 2009. It was the holding company for Bank of Scotland plc, which operated the Ba ...
, of which he was Chief Executive until 2006.
On 3 December 2012, Crosby was required to appear before Britain's Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards.
Crosby was knighted for services to the financial industry in 2006, but requested that the honour be rescinded in 2013 following the official report into the collapse of HBOS. His request was accepted and his knighthood was formally annulled on 6 June 2013.
Early life
Crosby was born in
Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...
. He was educated at the
Lancaster Royal Grammar School
Lancaster Royal Grammar School (LRGS) is a selective grammar school (day and boarding) for boys aged 11–18 in Lancaster, Lancashire, England. Old students belong to The Old Lancastrians. The school's sixth form opened to girls in 2019. LRGS i ...
between 1967 and 1974. After leaving the school, he continued his studies in mathematics at
Brasenose College, Oxford.
Early career
Crosby joined financial services company Scottish Amicable (acquired in 1997 by
Prudential plc
Prudential plc is a British multinational insurance company headquartered in London, England. It was founded in London in May 1848 to provide loans to professional and working people.
Prudential has dual primary listings on the London Stock E ...
) in 1977. After qualifying as a Fellow of the
Faculty of Actuaries
The Faculty of Actuaries in Scotland was the professional body representing actuaries in Scotland. The Faculty of Actuaries was one of two actuarial bodies in the UK, the other was the Institute of Actuaries, which was a separate body in Englan ...
in 1980, he was a founding director of
J Rothschild Assurance in 1991, which went on to become wealth manager
St. James's Place plc.
HBoS
Crosby joined the
Halifax bank in 1994 as Managing Director of Halifax Life. Five years later, he became the chief executive of
Halifax plc, and in 2001 Crosby became the first chief executive of the newly formed
HBOS
HBOS plc was a banking and insurance company in the United Kingdom, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Lloyds Banking Group, having been taken over in January 2009. It was the holding company for Bank of Scotland plc, which operated the Ba ...
Group after overseeing the merger between Halifax plc and the
Bank of Scotland
The Bank of Scotland plc (Scottish Gaelic: ''Banca na h-Alba'') is a commercial and clearing bank based in Scotland and is part of the Lloyds Banking Group, following the Bank of Scotland's implosion in 2008. The bank was established by th ...
. In early 2006 Crosby retired after seven years as chief executive leaving HBOS as the fourth largest bank in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
in terms of
market capitalisation
Market capitalization, sometimes referred to as market cap, is the total value of a publicly traded company's outstanding common shares owned by stockholders.
Market capitalization is equal to the market price per common share multiplied by t ...
. His position was taken by "his young
protégé"
Andy Hornby
Andy Hornby (born 21 January 1967) is an English businessman, currently chief executive of The Restaurant Group, a British chain of restaurants and public houses.
Biography
Hornby was born in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, but brought up in ...
in July 2006. In April 2013, the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards assigned some responsibility for the collapse of
HBOS
HBOS plc was a banking and insurance company in the United Kingdom, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Lloyds Banking Group, having been taken over in January 2009. It was the holding company for Bank of Scotland plc, which operated the Ba ...
to Crosby, along with primary responsibility to
Dennis Stevenson
Dennis Ross Stevenson (born 12 November 1946) was an Australian politician. He was elected in the inaugural 1989 general election to serve in the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly, on a platform of abolishing self-government ...
and
Andy Hornby
Andy Hornby (born 21 January 1967) is an English businessman, currently chief executive of The Restaurant Group, a British chain of restaurants and public houses.
Biography
Hornby was born in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, but brought up in ...
.
Financial Services Authority
Crosby was appointed in January 2004 by
HM Treasury
His Majesty's Treasury (HM Treasury), occasionally referred to as the Exchequer, or more informally the Treasury, is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for developing and executing the government's public finance policy and ...
as a non-Executive Director of the
Financial Services Authority whilst still CEO of HBOS. In November 2007 he became Deputy Chair of the FSA, and in February 2009 he
resigned
Resignation is the formal act of leaving or quitting one's office or position. A resignation can occur when a person holding a position gained by election or appointment steps down, but leaving a position upon the expiration of a term, or choos ...
this role.
During a session of the
Treasury Select Committee
The House of Commons Treasury Committee (often referred to as the Treasury Select Committee) is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The remit of the committee is to examine the expenditure, administr ...
of the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...
on 10 February 2009, it was alleged that Sir James had ignored warnings by its former head of
Group Regulatory Risk,
Paul Moore, relating to risky business practices. Moore had predicted that HBOS's rapid growth left it vulnerable to a large number of borrower
defaults. In 2005 the
whistleblower
A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...
Moore was sacked by Crosby, with Moore quoted as saying that Crosby wrote "The decision (to sack Moore) was mine and mine alone." Moore related the key issues in his statement:
::2.12 When I was Head of Group Regulatory Risk at HBOS, I certainly knew that the bank was going too fast (and told them), had a cultural indisposition to challenge (and told them) and was a serious risk to financial stability (what the FSA call "Maintaining Market Confidence") and
consumer protection (and told them).
::2.13 I told the Board they ought to slow down but was prevented from having this properly minuted by the CFO. I told them that their sales culture was significantly out of balance with their systems and controls.
::2.14 I was told by the FSA, the Chairman of the Audit Committee and others that I was doing a good job.
::2.15 Notwithstanding this I was dismissed by the
CEO (he wrote that it was "...his decision and his alone"). I sued HBOS for unfair dismissal under the whistle blowing legislation. Ironically, I was also the "Good Practice Manager" for whistle blowing purposes at HBOS but could hardly report my case to myself!
On 11 February 2009 Crosby resigned from his post at the Financial Services Authority, which
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
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...
says he understood was to protect the FSA from controversy.
The FSA released a statement late on 11 February 2009 that it had concerns about HBOS before the Moore resignation, a statement which raises yet more questions about the regulation of HBOS. A central problem concerns
s between board members of the FSA and the companies it is trying to regulate. However, Moore has received support from a former member of his team at HBOS, Anthony Smith, who on 17 February 2009, accused HBOS of "dumbing down".
Crosby was further criticised when, following the takeover of HBOS by Lloyds, HBOS was responsible for annual losses of £10 billion, in part due to write-downs made because Lloyds' accounting standards are much more conservative than those of HBOS. Conservative Shadow Chancellor George Osborne said that the government's bank bailout money had been wiped out by the HBOS losses, saying that "HBOS bankers like James Crosby bear a heavy responsibility".
, to lead the Government's Public Private Forum on Identity Management, a scheme designed to counter problems such as
. Also in 2006, Crosby received a
for services to the financial industry.
In April 2008, Crosby was appointed by
to head up a Working Group of mortgage industry experts to advise the Government on how to improve the functioning of the
market.
In 2006, Crosby was appointed to lead Gordon Brown's Identity Assurance review.
Crosby is a non-executive director of television company
.
On 3 December 2012 Crosby was required to appear before the British Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards over his role as Chief Executive during the Collapse of HBOS.
Britain's ''Financial Times'' reported:
'Whitehall’s honours forfeiture committee met in recent days and accepted Mr Crosby’s request for him to lose his knighthood.'