MOVES-Zirps leaves RBS capital markets

By Alex Chambers and Merle Crichton

LONDON, Jan 25 (IFR) - Richard Zirps, who was head of FIG capital markets for Germany, Austria and Switzerland at NatWest Markets, is leaving the bank, according to market participants.

Zirps will leave at the end of March after 11 years at NatWest and will be replaced by Sophie Landry in the role.

She (Munich: SOQ.MU - news) will report to Harsh Shah, head of FIG origination and solutions. Landry joined in 2014 from Credit Suisse (IOB: 0QP5.IL - news) .

Zirps was based in London and has worked in financial institutions origination for much of his career. He joined ABN AMRO shortly before the Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS.L - news) acquisition in 2007. He had previously spent six years at Lehman Brothers, where he led the bank's German DCM coverage and worked at Citigroup (NYSE: C - news) prior to that.

Zirps was not immediately availability for comment.

The bank has seen a number of changes in the past few months including the hire of James Marriott from UBS (LSE: 0QNR.L - news) where he worked for almost 19 years, and was head of FIG DCM for Europe, Middle East and Africa. He joined NatWest in October in a similar role.

Also reporting to Shah, Marriott is responsible for the FIG capital markets business in EMEA, including securitisations, covered bonds and bank capital.

Zirps' former boss, Gordon Taylor, resigned from his role as head of debt capital markets in September. He had worked at the UK bank for nearly 20 years. (Editing by Ian Edmondson)