RBS to restructure investment bank team - source

LONDON (Reuters) - Royal Bank of Scotland is to revamp the management of its GBM (global banking & markets) investment bank after the unit's deputy chief executive had a skiing accident, according to an industry source.

"There will be a reorganisation of the business," said the source, who asked not to be named.

The company's GBM investment banking division, one of the group's most lucrative arms which has also attracted criticism over the large salaries often handed out to its staff, is run by John Hourican.

Hourican's deputy is Italian banker Marco Mazzucchelli, but a skiing accident suffered by Mazzucchelli earlier this year has caused RBS to consider the changes to its GBM executive team.

Mazzucchelli will remain with RBS but will spend less time focussing on the day-to-day running of the GBM business and more time on "client-facing" roles, said the source.

Mazzucchelli joined RBS in February 2009 as deputy CEO of the GBM division. He had previously been one of Credit Suisse's leading London-based executives.

RBS has come under the spotlight over remuneration more so than many of its rivals since the bank is now majority-owned by the British government after it had to be rescued by the state during the credit crisis.

Britain ended up with an 83 percent stake in RBS and a 40 percent holding in Lloyds after bailing out both banks with billions of pounds in taxpayers' money.

Following the state bailout, RBS and Lloyds were ordered by European regulators to dispose of a host of assets, and RBS is currently selling off non-core property portfolios.

RBS' multimillion pound pay package for its chief executive Stephen Hester was overwhelmingly voted through at the bank's annual shareholder meeting on Tuesday, due mainly to the support of the UKFI body which manages Britain's 83 percent RBS stake.

However, RBS Chairman Philip Hampton reiterated at the meeting that he felt investment bankers' salaries were often hard to justify. "The level of pay that exists in that industry - it's very hard to justify objectively," said Hampton.

(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta)