ABN Amro brings army man to head London

Boumeester, who reports to Hugh Scott-Barrett, head of investment banking on the Dutch bank's board, will continue to be global head of ABN's integrated energy activities, one of the group's strongest business areas. Boumeester has specialised in the oil, gas and utility industries for most of his career.

He has worked in London for three years as a managing director and headed sub-investment grade origination, where he was responsible for asset securitisation, leveraged finance and emerging markets. Before that he was country manager in Malaysia, having worked in Singapore and Hong Kong.

His promotion comes as ABN Amro last week reported a return to the black in the second quarter, with a good performance from its equities and financial markets divisions. Revenues at ABN's wholesale clients division, which concentrates on investment banking, rose by 13% to €1.3bn ($1.5bn).

This was below the same period last year but the business came out of the red because of reductions in loan loss provisions.

The London operation employs around 3,000, following about 500 job losses over the last year.