James Pearson takes five month break from duties after three years in leadership position, with reasons not divulged
Royal Bank of Scotland’s Head of Spot FX trading in Europe, James Pearson, is taking a five-month sabbatical, leading to a temporary restructuring of the bank’s FX desk, RBS stated yesterday.
Mr. Pearson had assumed his position in August 2011 after being recruited by the British financial giant from Japanese financial holdings company Nomura.
“He is taking a sabbatical for entirely personal reasons. This is in no way linked to any investigation,” an RBS spokeswoman told Reuters.
RBS, which is now considered to be the seventh largest FX trading bank in the world, with a market share, according to Euromoney of 6% of global FX order flow, is among several major banks assisting regulators around the world who are investigating allegations of collusion and price-rigging in the global currency market, by far the world’s largest financial marketplace.
According to Reuters, Mr. Pearson was part of a group of chief dealers in London who met up to four times a year with senior Bank of England officials to discuss the main issues and events affecting the currency market until those meetings were discontinued last year.
Mr. Pearson’s responsibilities will be shared among three employees on the foreign-exchange desk in addition to their current roles, RBS has stated.
Damon Reynolds will run the voice cash and NDF business for Europe Middle East and Africa, Simon Manwaring will take on technology-based trading and Scott McMunn will take on the role of head of EMEA currency trading.
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