Sir Tom McKillop has been appointed as an independent director of the board of UCB, which is listed in Brussels.

As chairman of RBS, Sir Tom presided over the lead-up to it filing the biggest corporate loss in UK history. He famously apologised for his role in RBS’s failure in front of a House of Commons Treasury select committee.

However, originally a research chemist, Sir Tom has an extensive record in the pharmaceuticals industry. He worked for ICI before being appointed as chief executive of AstraZeneca. He was knighted for services to pharmaceuticals in 2004.

A spokeswoman for the firm said last night that Sir Tom was hired “purely” on his experience in the pharmaceutical industry. “For us, the reason he has joined UCB is his great experience in the pharmaceutical world,” she said.

Sir Tom was appointed to the UCB board on November 6 at an emergency general meeting, although the appointment has gone unreported until now.

The news of the appointment came on the day that Sir David Walker announced the results of his review into bank bonuses. He said banks must disclose how much they pay top employees as part of 39 steps to improve how banks are run.

Although touted as the toughest set of pay rules in the world, they stop short of actual caps or naming individuals.

Nevertheless bankers would have to wait much longer – up to five years – to receive some of their remuneration, a tougher condition than agreed globally by the G20 group of countries.

British Bankers’ Association chief executive, Angela Knight, said the industry was already adopting many of Sir David’s proposals but few countries showed signs of following suit on pay, raising competition risks for British banks.

Sir David said he would have gone “marginally” further if there had been no concerns about compliance elsewhere. He said: “It’s a white cliffs of Dover question. The UK is a small place in a very big world and if we hobble our banks with obligations that are totally different from those that are put in place elsewhere there are large unintended consequences that could do us harm.”

There have been mixed fortunes for those who appeared alongside Sir Tom at the Treasury select committee. RBS chief executive Sir Fred Goodwin has been widely criticised for his generous pension package and has tried to keep a low profile, living in Edinburgh and the south of France.

HBOS chairman Lord Stevenson has also kept a low profile. However, HBOS chief executive Andy Hornby has been appointed chief executive of Alliance Boots.