Egg has appointed in-house lawyer Adrian Hockridge as its new head of legal, replacing Marcus Ezekiel, who was made redundant by the online banking provider earlier this year.

Hockridge started in the role at the beginning of the summer and will report to chief risk officer Paul De Hoest. The appointment comes after Ezekiel, the group's chief legal officer and company secretary, left the company in May following a decision by the FTSE 250 bank to embark on a restructuring exercise in the wake of its withdrawal from the French market.

Assistant company secretary Sue Windridge replaced Ezekiel as company secretary, but the company said at the time it had no plans to hire a replacement legal head.

Hockridge becomes the bank's third general counsel in three years after James Butler left after two years in the role to join AMP UK Financial Services in 2002.

The news will be followed closely by Egg's lead legal advisers, Lovells and Slaughter and May, which have advised the company since it was launched as an internet bank in 1998.

Egg, which is majority-owned by Prudential, is the world's largest online bank, with around 3.6 million customers and profits of £74m during 2004.