By Lawrence White and Iain Withers
LONDON (Reuters) -Standard Chartered said on Thursday it had hired former Bank of America investment banker Diego De Giorgi as chief financial officer after the lender said veteran incumbent Andy Halford had decided to retire.
De Giorgi, most recently co-chief executive of special purpose acquisition company Pegasus Europe, will be tasked with boosting the Asia and Africa-focused bank's returns at a time of global market volatility and heightened geopolitical tensions.
Halford is one of British banking's longest-serving executives, having held the role of CFO since July 2014, helping steer the bank through a period of extensive restructuring and global macroeconomic turmoil.
De Giorgi, 53, will initially join as CFO designate on Sept. 1, before taking on the role formally and joining the bank's board in the first quarter of 2024, subject to regulatory approval.
The fact that Halford is remaining in an advisory role for 12 months indicates the handover should be a smooth one, said Matt Britzman, equity analyst at investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown.
De Giorgi will, like Halford, be based in London and report to StanChart CEO Bill Winters, who is the longest-serving CEO of a major European bank following Frederic Oudea's exit from Societe Generale (OTC:SCGLY) in May.
The change in CFO will not likely impact Winters' departure timing greatly, Britzman said, with the StanChart CEO more focused on hitting the lender's key performance goals.
DOUBLE-DIGIT RETURNS
"We've previously heard that he's keen to stay around until Standard Chartered (OTC:SCBFF) can deliver on its medium-term target of double-digit returns in the next year or two," Britzman said.
That could be hard to achieve this financial year given the bank's recent results, he added, but could be possible next year, paving the way for Winters to move on.
De Giorgi previously held senior roles at Bank of America Merrill Lynch (NYSE:BAC), including head of global investment banking.
Before then, he worked in equity capital markets and financial institutions at Goldman Sachs, rising to become chief operating officer for the investment bank by the time of his departure in 2012.
His career track record and profile as a senior investment banker indicates that the bank may be positioning him as a future successor to Winters, said Joe Dickerson, analyst at Jefferies.
StanChart in July upgraded its annual profit forecast and announced a $1 billion share buyback, in a sign that rising interest rates globally are helping it to boost income after years of flat revenues.
That long period of underperformance has seen the bank's shares fall nearly 30% since Winters took over as CEO in June 2015.