Blair To Bank A Tidy Sum As Adviser On Wall Street

LONDON: Britain's former prime minister Tony Blair is set to take up an advisory role worth more than $1.2 million a year at the Wall Street bank JPMorgan.

Mr Blair, who stood down as prime minister in June, will provide political and strategic advice and participate in client events in the part-time role at the bank, which has assets of more than $US1.5 trillion ($1.7 trillion) and activities in commercial banking and private equity.

The chief executive of JPMorgan, Jamie Dimon, said Mr Blair would be "enormously valuable" to the bank. "There are only a handful of people in the world who have the knowledge and relationships that he has."

Mr Blair's exact salary has not been disclosed, but is based on recruitment estimates. He is not paid in his other role as Middle East envoy, and told the Financial Times that he expected to take on a "small handful" of roles in different sectors.

The deal was brokered by Robert Barnett, the Washington lawyer behind the reported #5 million ($11 million) advance for Mr Blair's memoirs.

Mr Barnett said that Mr Blair had been contacted by "more than a dozen financial services companies" after he resigned, but Mr Dimon telephoned Mr Blair personally.

The advisory job adds to Mr Blair's presence on the international speaker's circuit, in which he commands up to $US500,000 for each engagement.