Our economists provide us with trustworthy and valued global and topical insights, which give our decision-makers and customers confidence.
Stephen Boyle is Head of Group Economics. Group Economics provides economic advice to business, credit and strategy functions across RBS. The team is focused on understanding the trends in the economy and what they mean for the Group and its customers in the different markets and geographies they operate in.
Educated at Glasgow and McGill Universities, Stephen first worked at RBS from 1996-2001 as Head of Business Economics. He returned to RBS in 2006, having established Futureskills Scotland - the Scottish government's labour market analysis unit - and led the economics and evaluation functions of Scottish Enterprise. He has also worked in universities and was director of an economic consulting business.
Fionnuala Earley is a UK Consumer Economist in Group Economics. Previously she was Chief Economist at Nationwide Building Society where she was responsible for the Nationwide House Price Index and became a well known and respected media commentator on housing market issues. Fionnuala worked as a senior economist at the Council of Mortgage Lenders and gained experience of European housing and mortgage markets as head of Research and Statistics at the European Mortgage Federation in Brussels.
She trained as a government economist at the Financial Services Authority, Department for Business and Enterprise and the Office of Fair Trading and has economics degrees from the University of Cardiff and the University of Southampton.
Robert Gardner is the Head of the Macroeconomics Team. The team provides strategic advice and forecasts to the Royal Bank of Scotland Group and its customers. Robert's primary focus is on the UK economy, but he has also held responsibility for the United States and the major Eurozone economies during his six years at RBS. He also spent time in New York working in the Group's Financial Markets division.
Prior to joining the Group Robert worked for four years as an Emerging Markets Economist (covering Latin America and Asia) for a large UK financial institution and has also worked as an Economic Advisor at HM Treasury. He holds a first class honours degree and a Masters in Economic Management and Policy (with distinction).