RBS announces commercial director appointment for Williams & Glyn spin-off

Royal Bank of Scotland has today announced the appointment of a managing director of commercial banking for Williams & Glyn, the challenger bank being spun-out of the still 73 per cent state-owned Edinburgh lender, as a condition of its £45 billion government bailout at the height of the financial crisis.

Joining from HSBC, Rob Allen will lead the bank’s commercial business and report to W&G’s chief executive Jim Brown,

Coming from HSBC’s commercial banking division where he most recently held the role of managing director, financial Sponsor coverage, UK and Europe, he has previously held managing director-level positions with responsibility for leveraged finance, financial sponsors and portfolio monitoring in WestLB AG. Before that, he worked for Westpac, where he headed up their dedicated mid-market acquisition business.

Mr Allen will begin working at Williams & Glyn, subject to regulatory approval, on 4 May 2016, RBS said.

Mr Allen said: “Williams & Glyn has a very strong commercial business, which I am delighted to have been offered the chance to lead. I look forward to joining Jim Brown’s team soon and to playing a key role in serving the businesses who already bank with us, and also in attracting new customers to Williams & Glyn.”

Williams & Glyn chief executive Jim Brown, added: “I’m really pleased to have Rob on board at Williams & Glyn. He brings a wealth of experience from a wide range of roles within business and financial services which will be a real asset to the team.”

Williams & Glyn serves 1.8m customers and has net loans and advances to customers of £20 billion and customer deposits of £24 billion.