Michael Foot, a former deputy director of the Bank of England, will head the independent review of the British offshore financial centres announced in last week's pre-Budget report. Mr Foot, who is UK chairman of Promontory Financial, a global financial services consultancy, was also a managing director of the Financial Services Authority in its early years and banking regulator in the Bahamas between 2004 and 2007.

The review will cover the three Crown dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man, plus nine overseas territories with significant financial centres, including Bermuda, Cayman Islands and Gibraltar. It will investigate their financial supervision, taxation, financial crisis management and international co-operation.