Rona Fairhead may find Roger Carr's defence skills handy

Rona Fairhead: Friends in high places

She might miss the £500,000 pay packet. But Rona Fairhead won't miss the flak. HSBC announced at last Friday's annual shareholder meeting that Ms Fairhead, a former CEO of the Financial Times group, will step down from her non-executive role at the bank next year. Until a few months ago, she had been expected to stay on. Then she got caught up in HSBC's Swiss tax avoidance row. Parliament's public accounts committee savaged her for failing to spot what was going on a decade ago. Committee chairwoman Margaret Hodge called her "either incredibly naive or totally incompetent" - a portrayal that has lost some of its sting since Ms Hodge was criticised over her family's offshore tax arrangements. It was too late for Fairhead, though. Shareholders had been calling for her head, too.

Chairing the BBC Trust now becomes even more of a priority. Assuming no more skeletons emerge, she looks like she has fended off Hodge's most barbed comment: "You should think about resigning [from the BBC too] and if not, I think the government should sack you." Just as well. City Insider hears that her incoming vice-chairman, City veteran Sir Roger Carr, simultaneously chairman of BAE Systems, was only persuaded to take up the role on the assurance that Fairhead was secure in her job. A defence expert may make a handy sidekick, though.

David Yelland: Kitchen work

Hack-turned-flack David Yelland is leaving public relations group Brunswick after almost a decade to go it alone. He is launching a small communications advisory firm, called Kitchen Table Partners, that will counsel individuals. Yelland - a former editor of The Sun newspaper and now a trustee of Action on Addiction - tells City Insider: "I believe business too often talks a different language to the one spoken out in the country, both here and in the US. This is something it has to put right."

The new firm's first client is former BP boss Lord Browne. The venture has been overseen by former HBOS chairman Lord Stevenson. And Conservative party politician Lord Gummer is providing the office. Three Lords a-leaping: quite a flying start.

IllicitEncounters.com: Spring flings

This week's least surprising news is brought to you by IllicitEnounters.com. The UK's largest extramarital affairs dating website claims that those working in finance are most likely to have an affair. Almost one in five active members of the website have selected financial services as their occupation. This is ahead of those working in government (3 per cent) or engineering (6 per cent). A quick browse of the site offers up MarkNYC, who likes "mild kink, as well as normal intimate encounters" and wants a girl with "a porn star chromosome". Or there's Mr Midlife, a 52-year-old Caucasian financial consultant, who says that "the type of relationship would depend on how well we jell [sic]".

IllicitEnounters' PR push comes as adultery website Ashley Madison is planning a $200m IPO in London to capitalise on growing demand for its services. Adultery: the next big trade.

Fred Goodwin: Booted now suited

Is Fred the Shred plotting a comeback? The disgraced former boss of RBS was spotted walking through Hyde Park on Monday evening. He wasn't in running gear - or shouting at the pigeons - but was wearing a suit. And carrying a briefcase. Watch this space.

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