BlackRock Executive Says No to Top Job at R.B.S.

The Royal Bank of Scotland is searching for a new chief executive following last month's abrupt departure of Stephen Hester. Warren Allott/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThe Royal Bank of Scotland is searching for a new chief executive following last month’s abrupt departure of Stephen Hester.

HONG KONG — BlackRock’s top executive in Asia, Mark McCombe, has turned down an approach by the Royal Bank of Scotland, which is hunting for a new chief executive.

“We can confirm that Mark has been approached by R.B.S. as part of its C.E.O. search process, but he has no intention of leaving his role as BlackRock’s Asia-Pacific chairman at this time,” a BlackRock spokeswoman in Hong Kong said on Wednesday.

Mr. McCombe joined BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset manager, in 2011 after a two-decade career at HSBC, where he last served as head of its lucrative unit in Hong Kong. A report on the Web site of The Financial Times on Tuesday identified Mr. McCombe as the leading candidate to succeed Stephen Hester, who after five years on the job resigned last month as the chief of R.B.S., in which the British government holds a stake of about 80 percent after a bailout.

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But in an internal note to senior staff members in Asia on Wednesday, Mr. McCombe wrote that he planned to stay put and felt “fortunate to be part of the BlackRock team,” adding, “We’ve accomplished a great deal.” The contents of the memorandum were confirmed by the spokeswoman.

Media representatives for R.B.S. declined to comment immediately on the chief executive search or approaches made to Mr. McCombe.

Mr. Hester’s sudden departure last month came just as UK Financial Investments, the organization that manages the government’s stakes in banks that received bailouts after the financial crisis, had started to move forward with plans to sell its holdings in those institutions, most likely beginning with the Lloyd’s Banking Group.

Finding a new chief executive is crucial for R.B.S. as it faces what is expected to be a long and complicated process once the government begins to sell its stake in that bank.

R.B.S. may give more details of the progress of its recruitment effort when it reports results for the second quarter on Aug. 2.