Since being appointed in 2006 by the then-Chancellor Gordon Brown to lead a review into the introduction of identity cards in Britain, Sir James Crosby has become a trusted, independent adviser to Treasury.

Following the review, which recommended that any future issue of ID cards should be free of charge, Sir James was almost immediately appointed by Chancellor Alistair Darling in April to explore ways to resuscitate the mortgage market.

His experience of private banking and mortgages were key to his appointment, Mr Darling said at the time.

Sir James' timing in leaving the City could not have been better, having stepped down as chief executive of HBOS in July 2006, just as America's sub-prime mortgage crisis was beginning to blow in from across the Atlantic.

Appointed as the first chief executive of HBOS in 2001 following the merger of Halifax and Bank of Scotland, Sir James rode out the post-September 11 financial turbulence, leading it to become the fourth largest bank in the UK and the biggest provider of mortgages.

He received a knighthood for services to the financial industry on his departure from HBOS.

Before HBOS was formed, Sir James had been chief executive of Halifax since 1999, having joined the bank in 1994 to launch its bancassurance business.

In his early career, he worked in fund management at Scottish Amicable between 1977 and 1987.

He is a director of ITV and also holds a non-executive position at St James’s Place Capital.

Born in 1956, he is married with four daughters. Educated at Lancaster Royal Grammar School and Brasenose College, Oxford where he read mathematics, he qualified as a Fellow of the Faculty of Actuaries in 1980.

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