(Photo: Reuters)
(Photo: Reuters)

Britain's Chancellor George Osborne has voiced strong support for the Royal Bank of Scotland's new chief executive Ross McEwan after the government and the bank's Chairman Philip Hampton ousted RBS' former CEO Stephen Hester in June.

Osborne said in a statement that he is 'impressed with [McEwan's] vision for RBS, as a strong and UK centred corporate bank."

In RBS' results announcement, for the first half of 2013, the bank revealed that McEwan, 56, will start his new job as chief executive on 1 October this year.

He will take no bonus, in addition to his £1m salary, for his work in the role this year or 2014.

"With his extensive experience in banking and the leadership that he has shown in his time at RBS, McEwan will be a great chief executive for the group," said RBS Chairman Philip Hampton.

"He has already become a champion for customers in our business and will continue that role as CEO. This is a job that is among the most important and challenging in the business world, and McEwan has shown that he has the drive and capability to take it on.

"I conducted an international search for this position so our internal candidates could be benchmarked against the very best in the market. Ross was the strongest candidate and I am delighted he has been appointed."

RBS Puts Retail at the Forefront

Following in the footsteps of Barclays, RBS decided to appoint a retail banking veteran to lead the bank into privatisation.

McEwan, was appointed chief executive for UK Retail in September 2012 at RBS and prior to that he was CBA's group executive for Retail Banking Services.

He has also worked for more than a decade in retail banking.

CBA is Australia's largest retail lender with over 16,500 staff serving 10 million customers. This equates to nearly 40% of the Australian population.

McEwan was credited with lifting retail banking profits by 50% to $2.8bn over five years.

According to a pre-recorded video interview, ahead of the bank's announcement, McEwan said that "it is really important for the UK economy to have this bank up and running and doing what banks should be doing - looking after customers."