Investors appeared to frown on news that the chief financial officer of RBS is leaving the bank.

Shares in Royal Bank of Scotland, parent of Coutts and Adam & Co, fell yesterday after the UK lender, part-owned by the government, surprised markets by announcing that its chief financial officer is leaving.

“Ewen Stevenson has resigned from his role as chief financial officer and executive director to take up an opportunity elsewhere,” the bank said, adding that the effective date of Stevenson’s departure will be “confirmed in due course” and that he will remain in post to “oversee an orderly handover of his responsibilities". The bank has immediately started to find a successor.

One media report (Bloomberg, 30 May) noted that Stevenson had been seen as a potential new CEO at some point. The present CEO is Ross McKewan.

At 09:30 GMT, shares in the lender were down by 1.57 per cent; the FTSE-100 Index of blue-chip shares was up 0.11 per cent.

The bank did not hide its disappointment at the news. “The board and I are sorry to learn that Ewen has decided to move elsewhere.  He will go with our thanks for a job well done and our good wishes,” Howard Davies, chairman, said in yesterday’s statement to the London Stock Exchange.

Stevenson was appointed chief financial officer in May 2014 after 25 years at Credit Suisse.

The bank is mostly (70 per cent) owned by the UK government since a post-financial crisis bailout of 2008. RBS shareholders have seen rival UK lender Lloyds Banking Group, which was also bailed out, return to full private ownership.

Reports noted that RBS reached a deal to pay US authorities $4.9 billion for mis-selling residential mortgage-backed securities more than a decade ago, according to people familiar with the matter (source: Reuters, 30 May). While the issue has been cleared up, the loss of Stevenson is an unwelcome added uncertainty, reports said.

Within its private banking arm, results have generally been on an upward curve: this segment said operating profits rose to £62 million ($85 million) in the first quarter, up £29 million from last year. Total income rose 9.4 per cent to £184 million from the same period of last year. Assets under management jumped 14 per cent, or £2.5 billion. Return on equity increased to 12.5 per cent, while the group’s cost/income ratio, expressed as a percentage, fell to 65.8 per cent.