Until yesterday City grandee Sir James Crosby appeared to have timed his career path to perfection.

He retired from full-time banking at 50 in 2006, long before the credit crunch destroyed the reputations of industry colleagues such as Andy Hornby, who succeeded him as head of HBOS, and Sir Fred "the Shred" Goodwin, the fallen ex-chief of Royal Bank of Scotland.

The Oxford maths graduate took a long break in Australia, picked up a knighthood and gathered a comfortable portfolio of public roles - including heading an investigation into the mortgage market and the deputy chairmanship of the Financial Services Authority.

He looked destined to end his career as one of Britain's most respected and best connected banking grandees with a possible seat in the Lords as the icing on the cake.

All that came to an end yesterday when he was "outed" as the boss who fired a whistleblower who dared to shout that the emperor had no clothes.

Now at 52, Sir James's name is destined to be added to the rogues' gallery of multi-millionaire bankers whose alleged folly helped bring down the City and cripple the entire British economy.

It is a huge blow for the engaging Yorkshireman, who was known as a student as one of the brightest mathematicians of his generation.

He went on to train as an actuary before moving into financial services. He worked as a fund manager at Scottish Amicable, and then joined Halifax when it was still a mutual.

He became chief executive in 1999, after the former building society had floated on the stock market.

It was under his leadership that one of the most audacious banking mergers in history was pulled off, the ultimately doomed £29billion pairing of Halifax and Bank of Scotland. During his seven years at the helm he earned £10million.

There are now massive question-marks over the decisions he took while leading the banking giant.

In an interview, he once said: "I found out that you only really have a 55 per cent chance of being right no matter how bright you are...It is better to set off in the wrong direction and then fix it than spending loads of time making your mind up."

It is an assessment thousands of HBOS shareholders and millions of taxpayers may now wish to dispute.

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