![]() ![]() now is the right time for me to hand over,” he said. “It was always our intention to begin a handover process around now. Sands admitted on Thursday the last two years had been difficult but put a brave face on his exit. The bank has said it keeps its domicile under review, and London has remained its preferred home in recent years. Investors welcomed the appointment of Winters, but some said the bank may need to go further and consider moving to Singapore or Hong Kong to re-orient itself towards Asia. ![]() The board supported everything he did so the guy feels he is walking on water and that lowers your guard,” said a senior banker at a rival firm. “Sands did very well, but he was there too long. That has undone much of Sands' good work in his first five years, leaving shares down a fifth since he became CEO in November 2006. Standard Chartered's shares have almost halved in the past two years, against a 19 percent rise in the European bank index. Sands has resisted calls to raise cash, in contrast to 2008, 20 when he moved quickly when funds were needed to improve capital and grow the business. Sands set out plans to cut $400 million in annual costs and 4,000 jobs, including taking out layers of management and shutting some areas, including its loss-making equities business.īut analysts expect Winters to cut more of the bank’s 89,000 staff, which has doubled under Sands, and also quickly address whether to raise capital. Yet the bank remained profitable, unlike many rivals, and its expected 2014 profit of about $5.7 billion is double its level when Sands became CEO. Staff morale is said to be low several senior executives left, including finance director Richard Meddings and more than 40 percent of shareholders rebelled against the pay plan at last year’s AGM. Losses from bad loans rose last year, and investors fear there could be more problems from $61 billion of loans to commodities companies, built up over the last five years. The bank had also aggressively increased its lending during its boom era, and rival bankers said it appeared to relax lending standards and carried some major single name exposures. Its 19-member board looked unwieldy and reluctant to challenge management, investors said. But the row left the bank slow to respond when more problems arrived. ![]() It paid a fine of $667 million and avoided losing its state banking licence. Investors have said Chairman John Peace needs to share the blame for Standard Chartered losing its sparkle, and he is leaving in 2016 once Winters has settled in.Ĭritics said Sands, 53, too often blamed external factors, such as changes in Korean law or tougher global regulations, and failed to restructure the bank quickly. Investors cited failures in strategy, execution and governance, leaving new CEO Bill Winters with a lot to do. It was the start of a run of trouble that saw Sands ousted on Thursday following a rebellion by key shareholders. Praised for steering a safe path through the financial crisis, the former McKinsey consultant had just delivered bumper half-year earnings to set his Asia-focused bank on course for a 10th straight year of record profits.īut days later, when Sands had gone on holiday, New York’s bank regulator accused the bank of being a “rogue institution” that hid $250 billion in transactions tied to Iran and left the United States vulnerable to terrorists. Standard Chartered Group Chief Executive Peter Sands speaks during a news conference in Hong Kong March 13, 2013. ![]()
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