RBS hires Lancaster to head securitization strategy

NEW YORK, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Royal Bank of Scotland's (RBS.L) Global Banking & Markets (GBM) division on Thursday said it had hired industry veteran Brian Lancaster to head securitization strategies for the Americas.

Lancaster will report to John Richards, head of strategy at GBM Americas in Stamford, Connecticut, and manage securities backed by home loans, commercial mortgages and other assets, the company said in a statement.

"Brian will be responsible for developing investment strategies for clients in MBS, CMBS, and ABS," Richards said in the release, adding that the bank will be beefing up his team significantly in coming months.

Lancaster joins RBS from Wachovia Capital Markets LLC, where he was most recently chief investment officer in its real estate division. He was previously head of structured products research at Wachovia Capital Markets and before that a managing director principal at Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc..

Lancaster started his career as a capital markets economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Bank of England. (Reporting by Lynn Adler, editing by Andrew Hay)