R.B.S. Names Credit Suisse Banker as Finance Chief

LONDON - The Royal Bank of Scotland has chosen a Credit Suisse investment banker as its new chief financial officer.

The bank, which is partly owned by the British government, said on Friday that Ewen Stevenson, the co-head of investment banking for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Credit Suisse, would join R.B.S. on May 19.

“I am pleased to welcome Ewen to R.B.S,” Ross McEwan, the bank’s chief executive, said in a statement. “Ewen has spent many years working with the world’s leading banks. In recent years he has been a trusted adviser to both governments and company boards on the steps needed to restore confidence in financial institutions following the crisis.”

Mr. Stevenson, 47, replaces Nathan Bostock, who resigned in December after less than three months on the job. Mr. Bostock had been the head of risk and restructuring at R.B.S. before becoming chief financial officer.

Mr. Bostock left to join Banco Santander’s British unit as deputy chief executive and chief risk officer.

Mr. Stevenson has worked at Credit Suisse in Britain and in New Zealand his entire 25-year career. He joins the Scottish bank as Mr. McEwan is seeking to reshape it  into a customer-friendly bank focused on the British market after years of aggressive international ambition.

The bank, based in Edinburgh, is selling or spinning off noncore assets, including in an initial public offering of its Citizens Financial Group in the United States later this year.

The turnaround hasn’t been an easy one. In February, the lender announced an annual loss of 8.2 billion pounds, or roughly $13.6 billion, and said it could be three to five more years before it recovered.

Last month, the credit rating agency Moody’s Investors Service downgraded R.B.S.’s long-term debt ratings, in part because of potential risks in executing its restructuring plans.

The British government pumped £45 billion into R.B.S. during the financial crisis and is eager to reduce its 81 percent stake in the lender, although the pace at which it sells parts of that stake is likely to be dictated by the speed of R.B.S.’s recovery.

That’s where Mr. Stevenson could be of help.

At Credit Suisse, he was a senior member of the team that advised Britain’s Treasury when it bailed out R.B.S. and Lloyds Banking Group.

The British government has sold two portions of its Lloyds stake in the past year as the lender’s outlook has improved and it’s possible the government could completely exit Lloyds by the May 2015 elections. Lloyds received about £17 billion from the British government during the financial crisis.

With a sale of Lloyds shares last week, the British government’s stake in the bank fell to 24.9 percent from about 39 percent.