The outgoing chairman of the Institute of Directors, a City grandee who chaired the government's British Business Bank, and the former senior partner at PwC lead a select group of financiers to pick up gongs in the 2017 New Year's Honours list.

Simon Walker, who was Communications Secretary to the Queen before going on to become chief executive of the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association in 2007, was appointed director-general of the Institute of Directors in 2011. His term of office expires at the end of 2016.