When Mark Boleat was appointed policy chairman of the City of London Corporation a year ago today, little could he have imagined the heightened level of scrutiny the UK’s financial district would come under less than two months into his role.

He was elected to the five-year post as successor to outgoing chairman Stuart Fraser on May 3 last year. Eight weeks later, Barclays agreed to pay £290m to settle a probe into the manipulation of Libor with US and UK regulators in a development that would radically alter the debate surrounding financial services regulation and reform.