CHIEF executive Stephen Hester and his fellow executives at RBS have been heavily offloading their bank's shares in the past year while executives at rival banks have been buying theirs, the Sunday Herald can reveal.

Members of the RBS board and senior management have been net sellers of RBS shares worth nearly £3 million since last August, a move which many investors are likely to interpret as a negative signal about their commitment to the company. Hester and investment banking boss John Hourican have been the main figures, selling over £2.6m in shares between them.

Given the steep recent decline in bank stocks, the managers’ decisions to sell have left them around £1.7m better off than if they had kept the shares. None had bought shares to bolster the company during the August market turmoil.

Managers at Lloyds Banking Group and Barclays have been net buyers of their shares over the year, spending around £300,000 and £1.2m respectively. Both management teams have also bought aggressively in recent weeks. To some extent, the difference in approach can be explained by the fact that RBS directors get larger proportions of their salaries in shares. The other two banks have both installed new senior teams in the past year, who would generally be expected to buy company shares.

A City source said that the differences were nevertheless striking and “did nothing to restore my confidence” in RBS.

A spokeswoman for RBS said: “Our leadership are closely aligned, through share-based remuneration, to the interests of shareholders and the long-term recovery of the group.”