LONDON, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Natwest Group has lined up former Mastercard chairman Rick Haythornthwaite as the new chairman of the British lender, a Sky News reporter said on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, on Wednesday.

A spokesperson for NatWest said they could not comment on speculation.

Haythornthwaite could not immediately be reached for comment on LinkedIn.

The bank's current chairman Howard Davies said in April he will leave the bank next year, a timetable he subsequently said he would stick to despite the fallout from a damaging clash with former Brexit party leader Nigel Farage in July.

Britain's biggest business bank has faced severe criticism for mishandling the closure of Farage's accounts with its private bank Coutts, after a dossier emerged showing a bank committee had said his views did not align with the lender's own.

The saga cost NatWest CEO Alison Rose her job, but Davies said he would stay for the time being while a successor is sought. (Reporting by Radhika Anilkumar in Bengaluru and Lawrence White in London; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Louise Heavens)