LONDON - Stephen Hester, the chief executive of the part-nationalized Royal Bank of Scotland, announced on Wednesday that he was leaving the bank.
Mr. Hester helped navigate R.B.S. after it received a multi-billion-dollar bailout from British taxpayers during the financial crisis that gave the
government majority control over the bank.
He has overseen a major overhaul of the British bank, which has shed hundreds of billions of dollars of assets and shrunk its investment banking operations.
Earlier this year, R.B.S. announced that it would hopefully be in a position from the middle of next year for the government to start reducing its 81 percent stake in the bank.
Mr. Hester said he would have liked to overseen the privatization process, but the board had decided that a new chief executive would be needed to lead the British bank from under the government’s ownership. Analysts said the total privatization process could take up to eight years.
“While leading that process would be the end of an incredible chapter for me, ideally for the company it should be led by someone at the beginning of their journey,†Mr. Hester said in a statement. “I will therefore step down at the end of this year.â€
The R.B.S. chief is expected to walk away with a salary and pension package worth up to $8.8 million
