HONG KONG â€" BlackRock’s top Asia executive, Mark McCombe, has turned down an approach by the Royal Bank of Scotland as it hunts for a new chief executive.
‘‘We can confirm that Mark has been approached by R.B.S. as part of its C.E.O. search process, but he has no intention of leaving his role as BlackRock’s Asia-Pacific chairman at this time,’’ a spokeswoman in Hong Kong at the asset manager said Wednesday.
Mr. McCombe joined BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset manager, in 2011 after a two-decade career at HSBC, where he last served as head of the British bank’s lucrative Hong Kong unit. A report on the Web site of the Financial Times on Tuesday identified Mr. McCombe as the leading candidate to succeed Stephen Hester, who after five years on the job resigned last month as the chief of R.B.S., which is 81 percent owned by the British government.
But in an internal note to senior staff in Asia on Wednesday morning, Mr. McCombe wrote that he plans to stay put and feels ‘‘fortunate to be part of the BlackRock team,’’ adding, ‘‘We’ve accomplished a great deal.’’ The contents of the memo were confirmed by the spokeswoman.
Media representatives for R.B.S. declined to comment immediately on the chief executive search or approaches made to Mr. McCombe.
Mr. Hester’s sudden departure last month came just as UK Financial Investments, the organization that manages the government’s stakes in banks that were rescued with taxpayer funds after the financial crisis, had started to move forward with plans to offload its shares in bailed-out institutions, most likely beginning with Lloyd’s Banking Group.
Finding a new chief executive is crucial for R.B.S. as it faces what is expected to be a long and complicated process once the government begins to unload its stake.
The bank may give more details of the progress of its recruitment effort when it reports results for the second quarter on August 2.
