LONDON- Royal Bank of Scotland said on Monday a senior banker at its private bank Coutts, whose clients include Britain's Queen Elizabeth, resigned after a Wall Street Journal report that female colleagues complained of harassment in 2015.
Harry Keogh, who was in charge of managing relationships with some of Coutts' most influential clients as market leader for sports and entertainment, stepped down last week, an RBS spokeswoman told Reuters.
The spokeswoman did not comment on the reason for Keogh's departure but read out an internal RBS statement that said: "Following recent media attention and the consequent strain placed on him and his family, Harry Keogh resigned last week."
Keogh did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent via e-mail and LinkedIn and the Royal Bank of Scotland's spokeswoman declined to provide a contact number.
The Wall Street Journal reported on March 15 that Coutts, a 300-year-old bank with a client base including Britain's rich and famous, had conducted an internal investigation of Keogh's team of dozens of bankers in 2015.
A second RBS spokeswoman confirmed this inquiry, during which allegations emerged of physical and verbal harassment of female colleagues by Keogh and other bankers.
At the time, the bank decided that Keogh would be allowed to stay on, although he was given a written warning, assigned a coach and had his bonus withheld, the second spokeswoman added.
(Reporting by Emma Rumney, editing by Silvia Aloisi and Alexander Smith) ((Emma.Rumney@thomsonreuters.com; +442075428644;))
