Skeoch appointed interim chair of UK accounting watchdog

LONDON (Reuters) - Keith Skeoch, the former boss of Standard Life Aberdeen <SLA.L>, will be the interim chair of Britain's accounting watchdog for up to six months, the business ministry said on Thursday.

Skeoch will stand in as chair of the Financial Reporting Council after Simon Dingemans left in May after only eight months in the job to join private equity firm Carlyle.

A permanent chair will be recruited and announced in due course, the business ministry said in a statement.

A City of London financial sector veteran, Skeoch has been a non-executive board member at the FRC.

He joins at a time when the FRC is driving throughfundamental changes in the sector in response to corporatecollapses at builder Carillion and retailer BHS that raisedquestions about auditing standards and the watchdog's competence. Britain is due to propose legislation to replace the FRCwith a more powerful Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority.

(Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)