By Michelle Price, Matt Scuffham and Steve Slater
LONDON/HONG KONG (Reuters) - Royal Bank of Scotland (L:RBS) will hand its restructuring chief Rory Cullinan responsibility for overseeing another major scaling back of its investment bank including its exit from Asia, three sources told Reuters.
The changes will see Donald Workman hand over the responsibility for running RBS's investment bank to Cullinan, who already runs RBS's internal 'bad bank' and is overseeing the sale of RBS's U.S. business Citizens and its Williams & Glynn business in Britain.
It is not clear what role Workman will take.
The bank, 79 percent-owned by the government, is under pressure from lawmakers to focus on lending to British households and businesses.
RBS is expected to announce that it will significantly scale back its operations in Asia leaving about 200 staff in Singapore, down from 2,800 at the end of last year, when it unveils full-year figures on Thursday, the sources said.
Cullinan will also take responsibility for managing RBS's exit from several European markets, they added.
The move will mark the latest step in RBS's sharp retreat from both Asia and investment banking in the past six years following its 45.5 billion pound ($70.22 billion) bailout during the financial crisis.
Cullinan was appointed to run RBS's 'bad bank' in December 2013. He is on track to sell or wind down the majority of the 38 billion pounds of unwanted assets placed within it by the end of 2014, a year ahead of schedule.