Initial investor reaction to the Royal Bank’s executive shakeup was negative as shares of the country’s largest bank traded lower Friday morning.

At mid-morning the stock was off 35¢ or 0.59% to $59.45 after the bank announced late Thursday that it had lured Barbara Stymiest from the Toronto Stock Exchange and let go three of its top executives as part of a massive restructuring.

Stymiest will take over the newly created role of chief operating officer, effective Nov. 1, the bank said, while also announcing the retirements of three vice-chairmen: chief financial officer Peter Currie, retail banking boss Jim Rager, and chief risk officer Suzanne Labarge.

Stymiest resigned Thursday from her job as CEO of the TSX Group Inc., which owns and operates Canada’s two national stock exchanges, a job she had held for five years. Before that she was executive vice president and chief financial officer for the Bank of Montreal’s investment banking division.

The moves are aimed at shaking up the country’s largest bank, which has performed poorly over the past year amid persistent problems with its U.S. operations. Stymiest’s role will be to guide the bank’s strategic development.

The bank also said it was reorganizing its corporate structure into four business units, divided mainly along geographic lines: a Canadian consumer division, a U.S. consumer division, an international investment banking division, and an operations and technology division.

Analysts liked the bank’s moves. “We view these actions positively,” said Darko Mihelic of First Associates Inc. “[The bank] is taking assertive action to address lagging results. We are maintaining a “buy” recommendation on RY.”

RBC CEO Gordon Nixon said in a release he was “delighted” Stymiest was joining RBC. “Ms. Stymiest has an impressive track record, and I am confident she will make a significant contribution towards helping us meet our business objectives and in generating strong financial performance.”