The chief executive and chief financial officer of Royal Bank of Scotland’s investment banking division have stepped down, as the lender prepares to announce a new strategy that is expected to involve further cuts at the once-sprawling unit.

Chris Marks and Richard Place have quit as NatWest Markets' chief executive and chief financial officer respectively. The two men had led the business and its predecessor – the bank's corporate and institutional banking division – since 2015.

The move is the first significant change announced by new RBS chief Alison Rose, who took charge of the bank last month. Ms Rose warned staff on her first day that it would need to "reduce the bad costs across the bank", and analysts and investors have singled out NatWest Markets as a particular problem area.

The division has already shrunk massively since the financial crisis, when it briefly made RBS the largest bank in the world by assets, and now focuses on providing services for the bank’s core corporate banking clients. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2019