Howard Davies, the chairman of the UK's Financial Services Authority, has earned the hard-won respect of the financial services community by his ability to stir things up without causing undue annoyance.

But this renowned tact seemed to have deserted him during a speech last week to the Investor Relations Council about stock exchange listing rules. He certainly woke everyone up when he said he was consulting on a proposal 'where a director, on a frolic of her own, has breached the company's code of dealing'.