Grigg, who most recently worked at British Land and has 30 years experience across the real estate and financial services industries, will oversee the bank's efforts to invest an initial 12 billion pounds in capital.

The bank aims to prioritise investment in projects that can help tackle climate change and lower emissions as the government aims to reach a goal of net-zero emissions by 2050, it said in a statement.

(Reporting by Simon Jessop, editing by Huw Jones)