LONDON â€" 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 of Scotland 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 the bank's planned sale of a 25 percent stake in Citizens Financial in 2015.
Royal of Scotland, in which the British government holds an 81 percent stake after providing 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 profitability.
The bank, which is based in Edinburgh, also signaled last week 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 Financial, which Royal Bank of Scotland bought in 1988, is part of its plans to raise much-needed capital. Mr. Van Saun, 56 and a United States citizen, will guide the group's 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 of Scotland's chief executive, Stephen Hester, said in a statement.
Shares of in the bank rose 1.5 percent in afternoon trading in London on Thursday. The stock price has risen 28 percent in 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 of Scotland has been reducing its exposure to risky trading activity and refocusing its efforts on its home market.
The bank has cut its balance sheet by more than £600 billion ($930 billion) since 2008, and it has almost cut its so-called noncore assets by half, 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-manipulation scheme.
Royal Bank of Scotland 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 Financial.
