Royal Bank of Scotland chairman Philip Hampton is stepping down to take up the same position at British pharmaceutical group GlaxoSmithKline, the companies announced on Thursday.
Hampton, who during his more than five years as chairman has helped to guide the bailed-out bank through its recovery following a government rescue, will join GSK in the wake of a Chinese corruption scandal at the drugs firm.
Hampton will leave RBS in 2015 after a successor is appointed, the bank said, while GSK announced that he would replace Christopher Gent as its chairman by next September at the latest.
A Chinese court last week fined GlaxoSmithKline 3.0 billion yuan ($490 million) following a nearly year-long bribery probe.
And the firm’s former head of China operations, Mark Reilly and four other ex-officials were given suspended sentences of between two and four years in prison.
The adverse impact of the probe, along with weak trading in the United States, caused GSK to slash its 2014 profits forecast earlier this year.
Edinburgh-based Royal Bank of Scotland meanwhile remains 81-percent state-owned after it was rescued with £45.5 billion of taxpayers’ cash during the 2008 global financial crisis, making it the world’s biggest-ever banking bailout.