RBS makes senior Asia hires

Royal Bank of Scotland Global Banking & Markets (RBS GBM) has hired new senior staff for its teams in Singapore and Japan.

Richard Place is the UK bank’s new head of GBM finance for Asia-Pacific in Singapore, replacing interim chief financial officer Robert Whittick, who returns to London. Place was previously at Barclays Capital in Singapore, where he held senior regional product and financial control positions. Before that, he filled several senior roles at Lehman Brothers and Deutsche Bank in London and Asia.

RBS has also appointed Ryusuke Otani as chief operating officer (COO) for Japan to succeed Richard Layton, who has retired. Otani, who reports to Mike Kirby, COO for RBS Asia-Pacific, joined from Nikko Citigroup, where he was most recently chief financial officer.

Also in Tokyo, the bank has appointed Mariko Nakamura to the newly created role of director in the project and export finance team. She reports to Wayne Burdett on a regional basis as head of project and export finance, and locally in Japan to Shinji Ichishima, chairman for GBM Japan.

Nakamura joins from West LB. Before that, she held senior positions in the project finance and export finance teams at Deutsche Bank and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi.