RBS Investment Bank Chairman Leaves Lender -- Update

By Max Colchester and David Wighton 

The chairman of Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC's investment bank, Rory Cullinan, will leave the lender next month after a disagreement over the bank's strategy, the bank said in a statement Monday.

Mr. Cullinan, an RBS veteran, decided to step down after falling out with the bank's management, in particular its chief financial officer, over how to execute a plan to cut back its corporate and investment bank, according to people familiar with the matter. Mr. Cullinan, who was only appointed to his new role last month, didn't answer calls for comment. RBS said that he will leave the bank on April 30 but declined to comment on the nature of the fallout or make CFO Ewen Stevenson available for comment.

The departure is a blow for the lender, which is 80% owned by the government, as it has lost a number of senior executives in recent years. Mr. Cullinan, one of RBS's longest-serving executives, was one of the lender's few top managers to be granted a bonus after successfully winding down a large chunk of the lender's so-called bad bank last year. In February, RBS said Mr. Cullinan would be put in charge of scaling back its investment bank to focus more on its U.K. client base.

RBS's plans include exiting corporate- and investment-banking operations in about two dozen locations including Hong Kong and Australia. The bank will retain only London, Stamford, Conn., and Singapore for full-service sales and trading, which will mainly serve Western European companies and financial firms.

Mr. Cullinan, who was a close ally of Stephen Hester, RBS's previous chief executive officer, was recently criticized by politicians after the Sun newspaper obtained social media messages between him and his daughter, where he allegedly described his job as boring. At the bank, Mr. Cullinan was known for his dry sense of humor.

Chris Marks, CEO of Corporate & Institutional Banking, and Mark Bailie, CEO of Capital Resolution, will now join the bank Executive Committee as CO-CEOS of Corporate & Institutional Banking, RBS said in a statement.

Write to Max Colchester at [e-mail] and David Wighton at [e-mail]

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