RBS appoints Sandy Crombie as a non-executive director

In order to restructure its organization, Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC announced Friday that it has appointed Standard Life PLC Chief Executive Sandy Crombie to its board as non-executive director, effective June 1, when Mr. Crombie will become the senior independent director of the RBS board.

According to recently-appointed RBS Chairman Philip Hampton Mr. Crombie is a person with deep understanding of insurance and financial services, who had held a number of senior executive positions during his career at Standard Life. Also he said that they were fortunate that Mr. Crombie would bring to the role of senior independent director his extensive experience of, and engagement with, institutional shareholders, government and regulators.

This appointment was made in consultation with the government, noted Mr. Hampton. This is “major step in the restructuring of our board as we implement our strategic plan to return to standalone financial strength," stated he.  

Last year RBS lost £24.1 billion ($37.9 billion), which was the largest corporate loss in U.K. history. Government injected additional capital into the bank, and now it holds a 70.3% stake in RBS.

London-based banking analyst, who didn't want to be named, said that Mr. Crombie is a person with a reputation of being "pretty tough, no nonsense". Also he added that Mr. Hampton has a style, similar to Mr. Crombie’s one and they should “work well” together.

Mr. Crombie worked at Standard Life for 42 years. Also he is a director of the Association of British Insurers, a member of the Chancellor of the Exchequer's High Level Group, and moreover he sits on the Chancellor's Insurance Industry Working Group. Recently Mr. Crombie received a knighthood for services to the insurance industry in Scotland.