FSA recruits "panthers" to stalk banks

LONDON (Reuters) - The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has appointed five senior "corporate panthers" to prowl the city of London and help it judge the competence of top banking executives and improve governance.

The FSA named Dominic Cadbury, Sarah Hogg, Colin Marshall, Brian Pitman and David Scholey to bulk up its clout and aid its quest to improve banking practices, supervise senior banking executives and quiz financial candidates applying for top jobs.

"These new advisors have extensive experience acting on the boards of major companies and in senior policy positions and will bring valuable insight to the work the FSA is pursuing on governance," said Hector Sants, the FSA's chief executive.

The FSA first appointed a group dubbed the "grey panthers" around a decade ago to its insurance division in the wake of the collapses of insurance companies.

The new panthers, who are established business figures and less likely to be intimidated by bank grandees, will help the FSA judge the competence and capability of those applying for and holding influential banking positions.

But one lawyer said the appointments sounded "a bit chummy and old fashioned."

"The problem with this approach is that it can be self-referential," he noted. "It's winding the clock back to how the city (of London) was 40 or 50 years ago."

Cadbury is a former chief executive and chairman of eponymous confectionery giant Cadbury, Hogg is a non-executive chairman of private equity firm 3i Group and senior independent director of BG Group.

Marshall is a non-executive chairman of Nomura International, an investment bank, Pitman is senior independent director of phone retailer and service provider Carphone Warehouse and a senior adviser at bank Morgan Stanley and Scholey is an adviser to Swiss bank UBS.

(Reporting by Kirstin Ridley, editing by Will Waterman)