Sherry Liu, chairman and chief executive officer of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) in China, has resigned from the post after just 16 months.
Liu is leaving RBS to pursue “outside interests”, but will continue to act as an adviser to the bank’s international banking team, according to a spokesperson at the bank.
“Sherry has been instrumental in building the RBS China franchise and helped us secure a number of important mandates and deals as a result,” the bank said in a statement. “Sherry will assist our international banking business in an advisory capacity to build on the significant momentum created with a number of mandates and deals delivered and in the pipeline.”
Liu was named as one of the Top 20 Women in Finance by FinanceAsia last year.
Meanwhile, QC Hua remains as country executive for RBS China and will continue to be the bank’s primary contact for Chinese regulators. Alex Chu, head of international banking for North Asia, will fill Liu’s seat as chair of the board for RBS China and will support QC Hua and the executive team. Chu has extensive experience of mainland China and both international banking and markets businesses, according to the bank.
RBS hired Liu last April from J.P. Morgan, where she was chairman of China financial institutions. The appointment, RBS said, was to demonstrate its continuing focus on building its corporate and investment banking business both in and outside of China.
“China is one of our key markets and we continue to have a strong presence there in wholesale banking including markets, risk management, cash management, trade finance, debt capital markets and loans,” RBS said in the statement. “We struck a number of key deals in the early half of this year.”
The British bank, which first entered China in 1903, provides banking services to government agencies, financial institutions, major companies as well as institutional and individual clients through a locally incorporated bank headquartered in Shanghai.
In February this year, RBS launched a China desk in London to provide a hub in Britain’s capital city to help companies in mainland China expand their business internationally and to help companies throughout Europe do business with China, the bank said on its website.
