LONDON (AP) — HSBC Holdings Chairman Stephen Green will leave the bank to become Britain's minister of state for trade and investment, the company announced yesterday.

Green will retire from the bank later this year and take up his new post in 2011.

Prime Minister David Cameron said Green will make an "invaluable contribution" to driving economic growth in Britain as the government seeks to open new trade links, promote British business overseas and maximise inward investment.

The new job is unpaid but includes an appointment to the House of Lords, since ministers must be drawn from Parliament.

Green, 61, who is also a Church of England priest and chairman of the British Bankers' Association, joined HSBC in 1982 and served as chief executive from 2003 to 2006.

He will replace Mervyn Davies, former chairman of Standard Chartered bank, who is returning to the private sector.

Last year, Green apologised for errors made by banks which contributed to the global credit crisis, but defended the industry as essential.

"The banking industry has not covered itself in glory to say the least, and indeed the industry collectively owes the real world an apology for what has happened, and it also owes the real world a commitment to learn the lessons," he said in the October interview with the BBC.