Exclusive: Santander UK's Board Shake-Up

Santander UK, Britain's fifth-biggest high street bank, is poised to unveil a boardroom overhaul that will include the appointment of a former JP Morgan executive.

I understand that Santander UK is close to recruiting Bruce Carnegie-Brown, who spent nearly two decades at the Wall Street bank, as an independent non-executive director. Antonio Escamez, until recently a board member of Banco Santander, the UK lender, is also expected to become a non-executive.

The appointments, due to be approved by the Santander UK board this week, follow the departures earlier this year of two of the bank's longer-serving non-executives.

Mr Carnegie-Brown, a well-known City figure, ran the UK operations of Marsh, the insurer, and spent time at 3i Group, the private equity firm. His breadth of experience and profile may make him a candidate to succeed Lord Burns, Santander UK's chairman, who has occupied the role for more than ten years.

Santander UK has been examining a stock exchange listing for the last two years, but the troubled state of the economy, coupled with radical reforms to the structure of British banks, have conspired to make a flotation unlikely before 2014 at the earliest.

Under plans being adopted by the Government, major universal banks will be forced to segregate their retail and investment banking operations by 2019, although Barclays and Lloyds Banking Group have signalled that they are likely to move to the new structure ahead of that deadline.

Santander UK declined to comment.