Ex-FSA head McCarthy joins JC Flowers

Former FSA chairman Sir Callum McCarthy has joined US private equity group JC Flowers as European chairman.

McCarthy, who joined the regulator from Ofgem in 2003, stepped down last September to make way for Lord Adair Turner.

His is one of a number of appointments at New York-based JC Flowers, which was founded eight years ago by billionnaire J. Christopher Flowers.

The group has also appointed David Morgan, formerly chief executive of Australian bank Westpac, as managing director of Europe and Asia Pacific. Morgan says he will step down from the board of BHP Billiton to focus on his new role.

"An early [investment] focus will be on the UK," he says, "where the banking sector is undergoing major restructuring."

JC Flowers director J. Christopher Flowers says the pair will make "a formidable team", noting McCarthy's "extensive banking and regulatory experience".

McCarthy was at the FSA's helm during the height of the Northern Rock crisis and was made to explain the regulator's handling of the case to the Treasury Select Committee.