Jonathan Taylor will take up this post in early January, HM Treasury said in a statement.

Between 2002 and 2005, he was a managing director at UBS, the Swiss banking giant.

Currently, he is chief executive for the Association for Financial Markets in Europe. Prior to this, he was director general of the London Investment Banking Association.

In his earlier career as a civil servant he worked in the Treasury in different roles, including as a director for macroeconomic policy and international finance. From 1994 to 1998 he was the senior Treasury official in the UK's permanent representation at the European Union.