ROYAL Bank of Scotland has appointed a commercial head for its new challenger bank, Williams & Glyn.

Rob Allen will start work on 4 May as managing director of commercial for Williams & Glyn, which has 1.8m customers and deposits of £24 billion.

Mr Allen joins from HSBC commercial banking, where he most recently held the role of managing director of financial sponsor coverage for the UK and Europe. He has previously held managing director-level positions with responsibility for leveraged finance, financial sponsors and portfolio monitoring in German banking group WestLB.

Mr Allen will report to Williams & Glyn chief executive Jim Brown.