NATIONAL Australia Bank finance director Mark Joiner, who last year said the UK economy faces a decade on its knees, has joined the board of its British arm Clydesdale Bank with colleague Rick Sawers.

The appointments are the final pieces of a radical reshaping of Clydesdale that will see NAB chief executive Cameron Clyne become its chairman when Sir Malcolm Williamson retires next month.

The shake-up, which has seen all but two of Clydesdale's non-executive directors depart, was instigated after a strategic review that concluded Clydesdale should retrench to its heartlands in Scotland and the north of England.

Clydesdale chief David Thorburn said: "As well as bringing extensive experience in financial services, their appointment underlines the group's support for the new chapter we are beginning following the strategic review."

Originally from the UK where he qualified as a chartered accountant, Mr Joiner began his career as a management consultant with Boston Consulting Group in Australia and the United States.

Before joining NAB in 2006, Mr Joiner held the position of chief financial officer and head of strategy and mergers and acquisitions for Citigroup's New York-based wealth management business.

There has long been speculation about a potential sale of 174 year-old Clydesdale by NAB, which bought the Glasgow-based bank in 1987 and added Yorkshire Bank three years later.

In an interview nine months ago, Mr Joiner gave a strong indication that NAB would seek to sell Clydesdale in the medium term, but only once the UK economy was back on track.

He said: "The market is at the bottom and so is - sterling. It is a rotten time to sell. There will be no fire sale."

He added: "We would prefer to own the asset, raise the returns and exit a few years later, or IPO [initial public offering] it - there are options."

At the time he explained that it would not be seeking to buy a 630-strong branch network being sold by Lloyds Banking Group.He was quoted as saying then: "Why do we need to bias our capital to the UK when the economy is expected to be on its knees for 10 years or so? There are growth opportunities in Australia."

Rick Sawers oversees NAB's wholesale banking arm. In 25 years with the group he has been deputy chief executive of nabCapital, its former global wholesale and investment banking division, and group treasurer. Before that he spent a decade working at rival Australia and New Zealand Banking Group.

Last month Clydesdale appointed four new non-executive directors: David Browne, former executive at hedge fund manager Man Group; Barbara Ridpath, former executive managing director at ratings agency Standard & Poor's; Friends Provident director David Allvey; and Alex Shapland, former partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers. With the departure of three long-standing board members at the end of May, the only non-executives remaining with Clydesdale are Sir David Fell and Richard Gregory.

Its strategic review published in early May concluded that Clydesdale should close 29 of its small business centres, shed 1400 employees and transfer £6.2 billion of commercial property loans onto NAB's balance sheet.