Royal banker to take new mantle
By Andrew Cave Associate City Editor (Filed: 19/12/2001)
ANDREW FISHER is to leave his job as head of Coutts, the Queen's banker, for a role at a private equity company whose star-studded board includes former prime minister John Major.
Mr Fisher, 40, Coutts Group chief executive, is joining Carlyle Group, the US private equity firm that employs former US secretary of state James Baker as senior counsellor.
Former Securities & Exchange Commission chairman Arthur Levitt is a senior adviser and former US defence secretary Frank Carlucci is chairman.
Mr Fisher will be succeeded at Coutts by Gordon Pell, who joined NatWest as part of the bank's unsuccessful attempt to fend off the Royal Bank of Scotland's hostile takeover bid. Mr Pell, 51, arrived at NatWest in January 2000 from Lloyds TSB, where he was chief executive of UK banking.
He became chief executive of NatWest's retail banking and took on the same role at RBS when it completed the takeover.
Mr Pell will continue to be chairman of retail banking and wealth management at RBS, which gained ownership of Coutts in the takeover.
Mr Fisher, who joined Coutts in January 1998, will focus on wealth management at Carlyle, although his exact role has yet to be confirmed.
Julie Cooper, speaking for Coutts, said: "Andrew Fisher has told us that this is something he has wanted to do for some time. It has always been in the back of his mind."
Coutts, which requires customers to have minimum assets of �500,000 in cash or �5m-worth of property, has increased UK profits from �41m in 1998 to �65m last year.
Carlyle Group, which has its headquarters in Washington DC, has invested $6.4 billion in 233 corporate and property deals since it was founded in 1987.
Its mission is to become the "premier global private equity firm and to generate extraordinary returns".
3 September 2001: Queen's bankers gingerly enter the scary world of advertising
23 April 2001: Coutts looks to Saatchi for help
