LONDON - Bruce Van Saun, Royal Bank of Scotland’s finance director, has been appointed chief executive of the Citizens Financial Group, the company’s United States unit, two years ahead of its planned initial public offering.
Mr. Van Saun, a former senior banker at Bank of New York Mellon before joining Royal Bank during the financial crisis, will take over on Oct. 1 and will succeed Ellen Alemany, who is retiring.
The appointment had been widely expected ahead of Royal Bank’s planned sale of a 25 percent stake in Citizens Financial in 2015.
The British bank, which is 81 percent owned by taxpayers after receiving a multibillion-dollar bailout during the financial crisis, has sold assets, announced several rounds of layoffs and reduced its investment banking operations in an effort to bolster its profitability.
Last week, Royal Bank, which is based in Edinburgh, also signaled that it was moving closer to privatization and expected to start selling shares next year to reduce the taxpayers’ stake.
The planned I.P.O. of Citizens, which Royal Bank bought in 1988, is part of its plans to raise much-needed capital, and Mr. Van Saun, 56 and a United States citizen, will guide Citizens’ entrance into the public markets.
“We are delighted that we are able to retain his talents as part of the group’s leadership team as he returns to the U.S. to lead Citizens towards the partial I.P.O. we announced in February,†Royal Bank’s chief executive, Stephen Hester, said in a statement.
Shares of Royal Bank rose 1.5 percent in afternoon trading in London on Thursday. The firm’s stock price has risen 28 percent over the last 12 months.
After an aggressive international expansion before the financial crisis that culminated with the ill-advised acquisition of the Dutch bank ABN Amro in 2007, Royal Bank has been reducing its exposure to risky trading activity and refocusing its efforts on its home market.
The British bank has cut its balance sheet by more than £600 billion ($930 billion) since 2008 and has almost halved its so-called noncore assets, to £53 billion, over the last two years.
The company has also announced plans to severely reduce its investment bank and agreed to a combined $612 million fine with American and British regulators earlier this year related to a rate-rigging scheme.
Royal Bank also said on Thursday that Nathan Bostock, its chief risk officer, would become finance director when Mr. Van Saun takes up his new role at Citizens later this year.
