RBC fires finance chief over secret relationship with employee who enjoyed promotions and pay rises

Royal Bank of Canada, the country’s largest bank, has fired its chief financial officer after finding that she was in a secret personal relationship with another employee who received promotions and pay rises as a result.

The Toronto-based bank said on Friday that Nadine Ahn’s employment was “terminated”, alongside the unnamed employee, after it discovered evidence that she violated RBC’s code of conduct.

The bank said it launched an internal review and hired outside legal counsel after becoming aware of allegations involving Ahn, finding that she had an “undisclosed close personal relationship with another employee which led to preferential treatment of the employee including promotion and compensation increases”.

Ahn had worked for the bank for more than two decades, becoming its CFO in November 2021. RBC has appointed Katherine Gibson, another 20-year company veteran, as its interim finance chief.

RBC added that the investigation found no evidence of misconduct by Ahn or the other employee in regards to its financial statements, strategy, or financial and business performance.

In the case that one of its top executives is terminated for cause, RBC will not pay severance and the employee could be denied other bonus awards, according to the bank’s annual proxy circular.

City A.M. could not reach Ahn for comment.

The news comes after several high-profile corporate relationship scandals in recent times, mostly involving male executives.

Bernard Looney, chief executive of BP, was dismissed last year for failing to disclose personal relationships with employees, later forfeiting £32m in pay and share awards for his “serious misconduct”.

The US financial watchdog fined former McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook $400,000 last January for misleading investors about his firing in 2019, which came after several inappropriate personal relationships with employees.