Image source, Getty Images

By Katie Hope

Business digital editor, BBC News

When Dame Alison Rose landed the top job at NatWest she became the most powerful woman in UK banking.

In the notoriously male-dominated sector, women at her level are still incredibly rare.

Dame Alison oversaw a bank with about 19 million customers in the UK and 60,000 employees globally.

It didn't happen by accident.

Dame Alison spent some decades climbing the ranks, starting out over 30 years ago as a trainee at the bank after graduating from Durham University.

When she secured the top job in 2019, she carefully cultivated her image and was frequently heard on the airwaves and appeared in print.

In interviews, she was typically careful reciting lines which had clearly been prepared and at times, she could sound wooden.

It was part of a media-savvy strategy to be visible and open, but also very careful - she never put a step wrong and never said anything she wasn't supposed to say.

That's why the latest development is so surprising - Dame Alison made what she admits was a "serious error" in speaking about Nigel Farage's relationship with Coutts, the private bank owned by NatWest.