RBS Said to Eliminate 100 Jobs at Investment Bank in Revamp

Richard Partington, Stephen Morris and Alastair Marsh

Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, Britain’s largest taxpayer-owned bank, will eliminate about 100 jobs as part of an overhaul of its investment bank, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.

The departures include senior figures such as Richard Bartlett, head of U.K. client coverage, and Eric Capp, head of loan and high-yield capital markets, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the details are private. RBS promoted Scott Satriano, currently head of sales, to lead a reorganized unit of the lender’s corporate and institutional bank.

RBS Chief Executive Officer Ross McEwan, 58, is shrinking the investment bank, exiting 25 countries around the world, cutting jobs and assets as he attempts to overturn seven straight annual losses. He’s said there will be “significant” job losses as part of the changes, without specifying how many positions will be lost at the Edinburgh-based bank.

“In line with the strategy to make RBS a stronger and more sustainable bank, we are simplifying the structure of our corporate and institutional banking division to better serve our corporate and financial institutional customers,” a spokesman for RBS in London said in an e-mailed statement on Wednesday.

More Responsibility

Investment banking chief Satriano will be responsible for areas including derivatives, structuring technology, debt capital markets and risk advisory. Kieran Higgins, currently head of trading, will take on additional responsibility for flow sales, which includes rates, currencies and credit sales and trading, the spokesman said. Both Higgins and Satriano report to Chris Marks, co-CEO of corporate and institutional banking.

High-yield bond trader Richard Moore, Alex Winward, a former head of investment-grade credit trading, and sterling-denominated corporate bond trader John Keane, also left their positions, according to three people familiar with the situation.

The reorganization, codenamed ‘Project Brick’, is the latest in a series of changes at RBS’s securities unit following its 45.5 billion-pound ($69.6 billion) bailout by British taxpayers during the financial crisis. Some of the people affected by the latest overhaul could be redeployed elsewhere at the bank, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

McEwan announced plans in February to shrink the corporate and institutional bank’s global operations to focus on U.K. and western European clients. The bank has sold loan books ranging from the U.S., to Singapore and Indonesia this year as part of a plan to cut risk-weighted assets to as little as 35 billion pounds by 2019 from 107 billion pounds at the end of December.

Bloomberg