Mark fishers Lloyds TSB move

Last year I blogged about Mark fisher being made CEO of ABN Amro. At the time i said I thought it was great move, I still think that, though his hands were relatively tied while he was there so we there hasn't been many positive news worthy moments to come out of his time there.

Of course, that whole acquisition has been marred publicly by high profile critics. A lot.

At the beginning of November it was announced that Mark would be moving from the trouble stricken RBS to Lloyds TSB to oversee the HBOS integration. This is a brilliant move by Lloyds, and in my mind they couldn't have chosen a better, more skilled man for the job.

Mark worked for Natwest when RBS started their David and Goliath hostile take over. He was tasked with leading the team to counter the RBS offer. As we all know, RBS succeeded in their take over bid and Natwest became a part of the RBS Group.

Mark so impressed Fred Goodwin, that Fred approached Mark to join the RBS team and lead the Natwest integration.

I was at RBS at the time of this integration and it was nothing short of massive, and sometimes, painful. However the integration, that lasted a good 2 year, went well and was a complete success.

I would expect nothing less of the integration of HBOS with Lloyds. They have one of the few people around who can make this a full success at the helm.

In the words of Eric Daniels, "I am delighted Mark is joining us; he has a deep expertise in banking and his proven track record in dealing with highly complex integration activity will be a great asset to the new Lloyds Banking Group."

I couldn't agree more.