When Sir Win Bischoff was asked to step into the hot seat as chairman of Citigroup in late 2007, he said that he could not give an answer until he had called his wife. With the 68-year-old poised to take on the chairmanship of Lloyds Banking Group, it is unclear whether Rosemary has been consulted again about whether her husband should step into another one of the world’s toughest banking jobs.

The mixed reaction to the news this week that he was being lined up for the Lloyds job might make him pause. Critics have said that the City grandee slipped up badly at Citigroup during his brief but unhappy period as temporary chief executive and then chairman in 2007 and 2008. They suggest that he is too tarnished to take on the role at the helm of Britain’s biggest retail bank.

Sir Win, born in Germany and brought up in South Africa, has also been charged with being too old to see through the five to ten years of restructuring that Lloyds needs. Others argue that he has been offered the job because there was a dearth of candidates.

So Sir Win’s supporters have hit back. Former colleagues who worked with him at Schroders in the 1980s and 1990s — during which time he built the business into one of the City’s premier corporate finance houses — as well as big names from the UK’s largest companies, say that Sir Win is a very gifted banker and a person of high integrity. They suggest that he is just the type to steer Lloyds through turbulent years, in which the bank’s many challenges are likely to include directives from Europe to sell off businesses on competition grounds; potential lawsuits from shareholders angry about its takeover of HBOS last year; and a mountain of bad debts in its core retail and commercial banking business.

Lloyds, which is 43 per cent-owned by the Government, is yet to confirm that Sir Win will be its next chairman to replace Sir Victor Blank, who had to sacrifice himself to appease investors furious at what is widely regarded as the disastrous acquisition of HBOS.

In the meantime, UK Financial Investments, the body that overseas the Government’s stakes in banks and is run by John Kingman, the Treasury mandarin, has been distancing itself from the question of who will be the next Lloyds chairman, to play down any suggestion that it has been pulling the strings behind the scenes.

Such faction-fighting should be depressingly familiar to Sir Win. He became one of a handful of Europeans to reach the highest echelons of an American bank, taking on the role of chairman of Citigroup in Europe after selling Schroders’ investment bank to the US group in 2000. When Charles Prince stepped down in 2007 as Citi chief executive amid reprisals about the bank’s massive losses and seemingly reckless risk-taking, Sir Win stepped into the breach, becoming interim chief executive and then chairman of the whole bank.

During his year as Citi chairman, internecine warfare broke out at the financial behemoth while it almost collapsed. The reputation of Sir Win, who said in February that he would retire from Citi this year, was battered by the experience.

Some observers point out that he was key in pushing for the bank to raise capital in 2008. As a consequence of Citi being early to the table, it raised $50 billion (£30 billion), primarily from foreign investors. Unfortunately, the efforts were not enough and Citi had to appeal for help from the US Government to stay afloat.

Others argue that no one taking on the chairmanship of Citi in late 2007 could have turned the bank around.

One City figure said yesterday: “Win took on the chairmanship out of a sense of duty. It is not fair that someone’ ... reputation should be wiped out by the events of 12 to 18 months.”

And yet there are other question marks about Sir Win’s record. When he joined the board of Prudential in August 2007, the UK insurer planned to promote him to replace Sir David Clementi as chairman when he retired.That view changed, with some senior figures at the company unimpressed with Sir Win’s grasp of technical detail. When Sir Win took on the overall chairmanship of Citi, some at the Pru were relieved because made it easier to appoint Harvey McGrath, the Man Group veteran, as chairman instead.

If Sir Win does step into the Lloyds job — and the backlash subsides — he will find the British job just as tough as Citigroup.

In the bank

Background: Degree in business from University of the Witwatersrand in 1961. Sold Schroders’ investment bank to Citigroup in 2000, becoming chairman of the bank’s European operations
Best Break: The Schroder family was so happy with Sir Win’s negotiations over the sale of the business that it rewarded him with a £5 million “thank you” cheque
Worst Break: Taking over as chief executive and then chairman at Citigroup in 2007 as the huge bank crashed and burned Style: Charming and affable

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