Angela Knight is to step down as the chief executive of the British Bankers’ Association in the summer.
Knight has been at the BBA for five years and has been the public face of the BBA during widespread waves of so-called ‘banker bashing’.
She was a Tory MP between 1992 and 1997.
A search for her successor is underway.
Knight said: “I have been at the British Bankers’ Association at a time of extraordinary difficulty and during a crisis of a magnitude that few if any have seen before or expected.