Mark Fisher was the natural choice to oversee the break up of the ABN Amro empire. The 45-year-old led Royal Bank of Scotland’s integration of NatWest seven years ago - a project that spanned 400 work streams, 22 billion records and 18 million customer accounts.

Mr Fisher managed to transfer £158 billion in deposits, balancing the books to the nearest penny. In 2003 he ran the integration of Churchill Insurance and in 2005 oversaw the move to RBS’s new headquarters, a controversial £350 million building on the outskirts of Edinburgh.

Mr Fisher was yesterday named as the new chairman of the managing board of ABN Amro, the Dutch bank acquired by an RBS-led consortium this week.

He is joined on the new board by Brian Crowe, one of RBS’s most senior investment bankers, who will oversee global clients and markets and transaction banking at ABN.

Another RBS investment banker, John Hourican, will take over as chief financial officer.

A consortium partner, Santander, has drafted in two people, including Javier Maldonado, who heads the wealth management division and UK corporate banking at Abbey, the Spanish bank’s UK subsidiary.

Fortis, the third bank in the consortium, has sent its chief risk officer Karel de Boeck, plus Paul Dor, a 40-year Fortis veteran, to the new board.

Among analysts, Mr Fisher is known as a competent but not flamboyant performer. As the chief executive of RBS’s manufacturing division, he is in charge of the bank’s entire infrastructure, including property, IT, purchasing and back-office support. His department is known as RBS’s engine room.

“It’s a dirty job that someone’s got to do,” an analyst said. “He’s suited to the break-up because you’ve got to know how to pull everything apart before it can be integrated.”

Mr Fisher started at NatWest in 1981 as a graduate trainee. He was finance director and, later, chief operating officer before NatWest was bought by RBS. In addition to his manufacturing role, he is chairman of RBS’s insurance business. Mr Fisher is also Chairman of the Association for Payment Clearing Services.