Non-executive directors contributed to the financial crisis by failing to challenge the management of many top banks, Lord Myners, the new City minister, said, as he urged institutional investors to take a bigger role in training and empowering corporate board members.

"We believe those boards need to be strengthened. Those boards were part of the problem," Lord Myners, who has served on the board of nine FTSE 100 companies, told a conference of non-executives assembled by Independent Audit, the corporate governance consultancy, late on Wednesday.