RBS confirms Van Saun will head up Citizens

Royal Bank of Scotland yesterday confirmed that finance director Bruce Van Saun is to return to the US to run the group’s Citizens subsidiary.

Picture: Getty

Speculation about the move surfaced in March after the taxpayer-backed lender revealed it was planning a partial flotation of Citizens within the next two years.

Van Saun, who is from Pennsylvania, will have been in his current role for four years when he replaces Ellen Alemany as chief executive of the US bank in October.

As expected, RBS’s chief risk officer, Nathan Bostock, will be promoted to finance director and will be replaced by his deputy, David Stephen. Bostock worked at RBS between 1992 and 2001, holding a number of senior roles including chief operating officer and group risk director. He rejoined the group in June 2009 from Santander UK, where he was chief financial officer.

RBS chief executive Stephen Hester said Van Saun had been an “exceptional” finance director and had played a key role in helping to turn the group into a “safer” bank.

He added: “We are delighted that we are able to retain his talents as part of the group’s leadership team as he returns to the US to lead Citizens towards the partial IPO [initial public offering] we announced in February.”

Along with floating off a stake in Citizens, RBS is preparing an IPO for 316 branches after the collapse of a deal to sell them to Santander. The European Commission has insisted that the group dispose of the branches as a condition of the state aid it received in 2008.