Scott Custer said Thursday he is stepping down as chief executive of RBC Bank next month for personal reasons and is not sure what he will do next.
"I don't know," said Custer, who has spent the recession trying to stem losses at the troubled subsidiary of Royal Bank of Canada. "I'm going to come up for air in my career and take a look around and see what's out there. I've been doing this thing for 22 years — it's been a long time since I've been unemployed."
Custer, 52, is to be succeeded on Nov. 1 by his current boss, Jim Westlake, Royal Bank's head of international banking and insurance. Westlake is taking on the CEO role at RBC Bank while keeping his other duties.
Custer's move is just the latest in a dramatic shakeup of management ranks at the $30 billion-asset company. Last month, it appointed two former Wachovia Corp. executives as president and chief financial officer. It has also shuffled its second-tier executive ranks as it restructures the management of its operations along product lines, rather than regionally.
Still, Custer's announcement caught some industry watchers by surprise. They said it could signal some more big changes to come at the money-losing Raleigh, N.C., company, which has 430 branches in six Southern states.
Michael Goldberg, an analyst at Desjardins Securities, speculated that Royal Bank may be gearing up to do more acquisitions in the United States, or — less likely — getting ready to sell its troubled subsidiary. The unit has been plagued with mounting residential and commercial loan losses.
Custer cautioned against overinterpreting his decision. Westlake used to run Royal Bank's highly regarded Canadian retail banking arm, he noted, and now is in a better position to apply some of the parent's best practices in the United States.
"This change "solidifies RBC's support for its U.S. business because it is sending down one of its very top executives to run it."
