RBS' Griffiths resigns

Richard Griffiths, a managing director at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc in Hong Kong, resigned after 14 months with the firm, a person with knowledge of the situation said. 

Griffiths, 37, who headed the group that advised companies in industries from chemicals to construction in Asia, is the latest senior departure in the region for the Edinburgh-based bank. James Pearson, head of the Asia-Pacific financial institutions group, quit in August. Celia Cui, a director of RBS’s China team, quit last month, two people familiar with the matter said. 

RBS is selling or shutting businesses in two-thirds of the 54 countries in which it operates after posting the biggest loss in British corporate history last year. The bank in August agreed to sell its retail, wealth and commercial businesses in Singapore, Indonesia, Hong Kong, and the institutional businesses in Taiwan, the Philippines and Vietnam to Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. 

Griffiths, as Asia head of the industrials group, helped RBS advise Sinochem Group, China’s biggest chemicals trader, on a $2.4 billion acquisition of Australia’s Nufarm Ltd in September. 

Anna Langford, a Hong Kong spokeswoman at RBS, declined to comment. 

RBS, which led a group taking over ABN Amro Holdings NV, has lost bankers previously with the Dutch-based company, including Richard Orders, the Asia-Pacific head of corporate sectors advisory, and China Chairman Qiu Zhizhong. Griffiths rejoined ABN Amro after a year with Houlihan Lokey in Hong Kong. 

He was hired by Orders, who stepped down in December after RBS cut about 70 investment-banking jobs in Asia. The UK’s biggest government-controlled bank will receive 25.5 billion pounds ($42.7 billion) from the Treasury. 

The government announced last week RBS and Lloyds Banking Group Plc will halt cash bonuses to workers earning more than 39,000 pounds this year as the banks received a second bailout. RBS hired Inseok Cha as head of corporate risk solutions for Korea and Ron Pathak as senior director from Barclays Capital Plc in September. In China, the bank named Joe Xiang and Raymond Yin as co-heads of the country’s investment banking after Qiu left.