LONDON, May 26 (Reuters) - Directors of Royal Bank ofScotland have held recent talks on identifying areplacement for its chief executive Stephen Hester, Sky Newssaid on Sunday citing sources.
Sky News said Philip Hampton, Chairman of the state-backedlender, called a meeting of the bank's non-executive directorsearlier this month to inform them he was drawing up a list ofpotential replacements for Hester, including Standard Chartered finance director Richard Meddings.
RBS declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.
Sky News said there was no suggestion that any of Hampton'scandidates had been approached about replacing Hester and citedsources saying it was prudent for RBS's board to be examiningoptions for the leadership of the company through what isexpected to be a lengthy re-privatisation process.
The report said that UK Financial Investments, the body thatmanages Britain's stakes in RBS and Lloyds Banking Group, were involved in the consideration of potentialsuccessors for Hester.
Hester has previously indicated that he expected to stay atRBS to steer the bank through the process of the governmentbeginning to sell off its 81-percent stake. Industry andpolitical sources have said it is keen to begin that processbefore the next general election in 2015.