BRITAIN'S £10 billion man John Brown has retired after a 46-year career in the finance industry. Brown, director of NWS Bank, part of the Bank of Scotland Group, was instrumental in arranging big ticket leasing deals worth more than £10 billion. He has also pioneered many of the practises considered de rigueur in today's leasing and finance industry.

He developed NWS Corporate Finance, previously IBOS, into a major force in UK leasing. NWS now claims to finance more cars for business than almost any other company and has been responsible as head lessor in many important projects such as the finance for Nissan's Motor Manufacturing plant in the UK.

He plans to take up non-executive directorships with NWS Bank subsidiary Equity Bank, Paramount Holdings, VRL Publishing, Whiterose and Concorde Insurance Services.