The chairman of part-nationalised Royal Bank of Scotland has stepped down two months early today.
Tom McKillop, who was originally due to retire in April, brought forward his departure to allow successor Philip Hampton to complete an overhaul of the troubled bank's board.
RBS, which owns Ulster Bank here, is set to be 70% owned by UK taxpayers after a year of financial turmoil which could leave it as much as £28 billion sterling in the red, due to bad debts and write-downs on the value of past acquisitions.
Mr McKillip - who was paid £750,000 as chairman of RBS in 2007 - is likely to face probing questions from MPs on the Treasury Select Committee next week over the board's supervision of the crippled business.
RBS led a consortium which bought Dutch bank ABN Amro in 2007 at the very peak of the market, while its investment banking business was heavily exposed to the complex financial instruments hit by the credit crunch.
Fred Goodwin - who led RBS on its acquisition spree before resigning in the wake of the first bank bail-out last October - will also answer to MPs next week. He has been replaced by former British Land chief Stephen Hester.
The Government stepped up its share of RBS in January after converting £5 billion in preference shares to ordinary shares, giving it a £20 billion stake in the bank.
