Ex-Morgan Stanley executives leave Rosneft-owned bank

Three former Morgan Stanley veterans have left a bank owned by Russian oil giant Rosneft , which said it was moving to focus the business on corporate and retail banking.

The Russian Regional Development Bank had only hired the executives - Walid Chammah, Rair Simonyan and Elena Titova - in November.

A Rosneft spokeswoman dismissed suggestions there had been any falling out between the individuals and the state-owned oil group's boss Igor Sechin, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin.

"All went their separate ways based on agreements among the parties - the bank changed its concept to focus on its core business," she said.

The bank's assets stood at 83.2 billion roubles ($2.6 billion) in the first quarter of 2013, according to Interfax data, putting the lender at No. 64 by this measure among local banks.

Another former Morgan Stanley veteran, Dmitry Avdeyev, left as chief financial officer of Rosneft in March.

($1 = 32.5750 Russian roubles)

(Reporting by Katya Golubkova; Editing by Mark Potter)