LONDON-- Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC has lost four of its
top legal and compliance staff, as the state-controlled bank braces
for a series of expected fines over past misconduct.
Chris Campbell, RBS's group general counsel, retired from the
bank last month, an RBS spokesman said.
Carolina Garces-Monterrubio, formerly head of financial crime
for Europe, Middle East and Africa at RBS's corporate and
institutional bank, also left in December to become HSBC's global
head of anti-money-laundering for commercial banking, an HSBC
spokesman confirmed.
The departures come as RBS, 80%-owned by the British government,
faces a potential multibillion-dollar settlement with the Federal
Housing Finance Agency over mortgage-backed debt it sold to Freddie
Mac and Fannie Mae before the 2008 financial crisis.
The bank has said it also expects further fines over its alleged
involvement in attempts to manipulate foreign exchange markets. RBS
admitted wrongdoing and paid out $634 million in November to U.K.
and U.S. authorities over foreign-exchange manipulation
allegations.
RBS Chief Executive Ross McEwan warned in October that the bank
still had "a long list" of conduct and litigation issues to deal
with before it could fully return to health and shed state support.
RBS was bailed out by the U.K. government with capital injections
in 2008 and 2009 totaling GBP45.5 billion ($69.2 billion).
Mr. McEwan and other RBS executives have also acknowledged that
the bank has sometimes struggled to retain staff because of a
government-imposed ban on most cash bonuses as well as overall
higher pay levels offered by healthier rivals.
The RBS spokesman declined to comment on the reasons behind the
recent staff departures.
Meanwhile, the other compliance staff leaving RBS include Mary
Squire, the bank's former head of sanctions and
anti-money-laundering for the Americas, who started at HSBC on
Monday in a similar role.
Nic Fanucci, a director providing RBS's banking executive
committee with advice on managing conduct risk, is scheduled to
leave the bank in March. Mr. Fanucci will join Standard Chartered
as global head of legal and compliance for transactions and
products.
Banks across the world have been adding compliance staff to
respond to a raft of new banking regulations and to guard against
future misconduct by staff. The increased hiring has led to fierce
competition for top compliance staffers. Compensation for these
employees has risen recently, though it still lags behind those of
traders and bankers.
Separately, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne on
Wednesday said the British government will decide when to start
selling its RBS shareholding shortly after the U.K. general
election in May. He said it isn't good for the banking sector or
for taxpayers to have such large and complex banks in state hands
for too long.
Write to Margot Patrick at margot.patrick@wsj.com and Rachel
Louise Ensign at rachel.ensign@wsj.com
Access Investor Kit for Standard Chartered Plc
Visit
http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=GB0004082847
Access Investor Kit for HSBC Holdings Plc
Visit
http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=GB0005405286
Access Investor Kit for Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc
Visit
http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=GB00B7T77214
Access Investor Kit for HSBC Holdings Plc
Visit
http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=US4042804066
Access Investor Kit for Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc
Visit
http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=US7800976893
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires