Stephen Hester completed his final day in charge of state-backed Royal Bank of Scotland, ending a turbulent five years following the departure of his disgraced predecessor Fred Goodwin.
Mr Hester’s exit was announced last June amid reports of a rift with Chancellor George Osborne. He will be replaced by New Zealander Ross McEwan, currently the bank’s retail boss.
In a series of tweets, the bank paid tribute to the outgoing chief executive although there was no formal statement to add to the announcement in the summer.
One of the messages said: “RBS has been made significantly safer, with a trillion pounds taken off the balance sheet since 2008.”
Mr McEwan takes the reins at a time when RBS is providing key endorsement for the Government’s Help to Buy housing mortgage guarantee scheme, which is being brought forward despite concerns it may stoke a housing bubble.
Mr Hester had taken over at the bank in November 22008 in the midst of a calamitous period which saw it rescued by the Government, which still holds an 80% stake.
Its collapse followed the disastrous 2007 takeover of Dutch bank ABN Amro in a £49 billion deal that weakened its capital position and left it highly vulnerable to the looming credit crunch.
Mr Goodwin was widely blamed for the catastrophe and later stripped of his knighthood, and Mr Hester was parachuted in to put the bank back on an even keel.
Tens of thousands of job cuts followed while non-core assets worth more than £200 billion including a chain of 900 pubs and an aircraft leasing business were sold off.
RBS also began to sell off insurer Direct Line. Last week it announced a £600 million deal to hive off 314 bank branches under the revived Williams & Glyn’s brand.
As Mr Hester’s successor was announced in August, the bank announced it had swung back out of the red with half-year pre-tax profits of £1.4 billion.
His performance was admired in the City but it seemed all was not well in his relationship with Mr Osborne, amid reports the Chancellor had put pressure on him to increase the scale and pace of its investment banking restructure.
Deep public resentment over bankers’ pay did not help. Mr Hester received a basic annual salary of £1.2 million and will receive 12 months’ pay and benefits worth £1.6 million.
Mr McEwan will be paid £1 million a year plus £350,000 in lieu of a pension.