Ex-head of investment banking at Royal Bank of Scotland John Hourican has hired another former top executive from the taxpayer-controlled bank to help him sort out Bank of Cyprus.
Hourican, who became chief executive of the Cypriot bank last month, has brought in Euan Hamilton as consultant to investigate delinquency, restructuring and recovery of loans. Hamilton was previously deputy chief executive of RBS’s non-core activities and oversaw the rundown of £75 billion of non-core assets in 18 months. He left in 2010 to join consultancy Cramond Capital Partners.
It is believed that Hourican and Hamilton worked together in RBS leveraged finance unit. Bank of Cyprus was the first bank in the eurozone to force depositors to take a haircut on their savings as it almost collapsed under the pressure of Greek debts. Hourican is expected to come up with a capital refinancing plan for the bank by next March.
