Virgin Money has appointed Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) head of litigation Stephen Pearson as its first ever general counsel.

Pearson, who has now left his role at RBS, will join Virgin's financial services arm on 3 August. He will report directly to chief executive Jayne-Anne Gadhia.

Commenting on the appointment, Pearson said: "One result of the financial crisis is that the shape of the UK banking industry is changing. Jayne-Anne's vision and ambition to make everyone better off by offering good value to customers, treating employees well, and making a positive contribution to society as well as delivering a fair profit to shareholders really resonated with me. I believe Virgin Money is ideally positioned to grow and help restore much needed trust in UK retail banking."

At RBS, Pearson was responsible for the regulatory, competition and IP legal teams as well as all types of commercial disputes.

He was also a member of the RBS Group executive committee and the Coutts Bank audit committee and served on various commercial court committees for both Scotland and England.

Before joining RBS 2001, Pearson was a partner in the litigation department of Travers Smith and focused on corporate recovery, insolvency and banking litigation. Prior to this, he spent six years at Linklaters.

The role as head of litigation at RBS will be taken on by Pearson's former deputy, Will Luker.