Oliver Holbourn, the head of UKFI which manages the government’s stake in RBS, is set to join the bank as head of strategy

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is set to get a new head of strategy, as it recruits the man who has spend the last several years managing the government’s stake in the bank.

Oliver Holbourn, who was formerly chief executive of UK Financial Investments (UKFI), is in talks with RBS about taking the senior role, according to Sky News.

The announcement is set to be made shortly, Sky News added. Holbourn only recenttly stepped down from UKFI, the company which was set up by the government to manage the Treasury’s shareholdings in the institutions it had bailed out during the financial crisis.

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RBS declined to comment on the rumoured appointment.

Holbourn will be replacing Richard Kibble, who left RBS to become a partner at accounting company Deloitte last year.

As head of strategy, Holbourn will be tasked with making RBS a more attractive investment target for City institutions.

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The UK government has been waiting for several years to offload its 72 per cent stake in the lender, and chancellor Philip Hammond has indicated he is waiting until RBS has reached a settlement – estimated to be worth several billion bounds – with the US Department of Justice over the mis-selling of mortgage-backed securities.

This should allow the bank to resume paying a dividend, and let the government gain more money from the sale of its stake. At the moment, the RBS is trading at a market value of around £21bn – less than half the price it was when the government bailed it out.

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