RBS: Bostock lined up to replace Bruce Van Saun

NATHAN Bostock, head of risk and restructuring at Royal Bank of Scotland, is believed to be the front-runner to succeed Bruce van Saun as finance director.

Van Saun, who hails from Pennsylvania, has been tipped to return the United States to run the bank’s Citizens subsidiary ahead of a planned flotation, which was unveiled last month.

RBS declined to comment on either appointment. Both could be announced within weeks, according to sources.

Bostock, a former Abbey National finance director, has been in his current post since 2009.

He was expected to move to Lloyds Banking Group in 2011 but withdrew because he was concerned by the health problems suffered at the time by António Horta-Osório, the Lloyds chief executive who approached him. It is thought he may have been promised a promotion if he stayed on at RBS.

Van Saun, who has held his current role since October 2009, is a key member of the team that has restructured the RBS balance sheet, mainly through asset sales. RBS hopes to complete its rundown of “non-core” assets this year as chief executive Stephen Hester approaches the end of a five-year turnaround plan.

Ellen Alemany is expected to retire as chief executive of Citizens, leaving the way clear for Van Saun to move in and oversee the flotation of part or possibly the whole of the bank, which is focused on the east coast.

Van Saun was previously chief financial officer at Bank of New York Mellon, where he worked from 1997 to 2008. He has also worked at Deutsche Bank, Wasserstein Perella Group and Kidder Peabody & Co.

He will be the latest member of the team Hester built to leave RBS following the departures of retail chief Brian Hartzer and John Hourican, who left his post as head of investment banking in the wake of the Libor scandal.

Hester has said he would stay to see the turnaround task to its conclusion. He still hopes to see the bank return to the dividend list and is likely to be at the helm to oversee the bank’s return to the private sector.

RBS was recently ordered, along with other banks, to plug a gap in its capital reserves, although it is thought the lender would find the necessary shortfall from measures already in process.