RBS/ ABN Amro cut back real estate teams

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and ABN Amro have trimmed their real estate finance teams ahead of a staggered integration of the two teams.   RBS is thought to have cut back staff significantly. Employees at both banks were informed on Tuesday and Wednesday this week.   The redundancies at RBS include substantially downsizing its European CMBS team and Mike McNamara’s London real estate finance team, as well as cuts in the financial sponsors team, syndication team, and the separate divisions responsible for lending to property companies and to corporations.   ABN Amro’s redundancies are also known to include cuts in its five-strong CMBS conduit team, Talisman.   A source said: “The reductions in headcount which have been made by the two banks have been made independently. Decisions will be taken next week further outlining the structure of the merged teams.”   Next week RBS will make its third tier appointments including the regional heads for merged teams which could see decisions on the head of RBS’ securitisation and overall head of European real estate. Those roles are currently filled by Damian Thompson and Doug Tiesi, on an ex-UK basis, respectively.   Last week, RBS confirmed Stephen Eighteen and Mark Fineman as co-global heads of real estate finance, with Eighteen having responsibility for Europe and Fineman responsible for the US.      james.wallace@rbi.co.uk