By Margot Patrick and Max Colchester
LONDON-- Standard Chartered PLC said Thursday that Chief
Executive Peter Sands will step down in June and be replaced by
former J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. executive Bill Winters, under
pressure from shareholders and some executives who had grown
frustrated with the bank's leadership.
The shake-up was far-reaching: The London-based, Asia-focused
lender also said Chairman John Peace will step down in 2016 and
that three longtime board members were also resigning. They will be
replaced by two new independent directors.
While pressure has been building for months on Messrs. Peace and
Sands, the magnitude of the shake-up surprised analysts and some
bank executives. Mr. Sands, who was entering his ninth year as CEO,
is one of the longest-serving chiefs of a major Western bank.
Investors greeted the move, sending Standard Chartered's shares up
about 2%.
Mr. Sands, who for months said he wasn't leaving even as the
bank's share price tumbled, said it was "the right moment" to hand
over the reins to Mr. Winters. "I am delighted that a banker of
Bill's caliber will be leading the group through the next phase of
development," he said.
Mr. Winters, who set up London-based asset-management firm
Renshaw Bay after leaving J.P. Morgan in 2009, called Standard
Chartered "a special bank." The 53-year-old American was co-CEO of
J.P. Morgan's investment bank during a 26-year career at the U.S.
lender. He also served at the U.K. Independent Commission on
Banking, which played a key role in reforming Britain's banking
sector after the financial crisis. He will join Standard Chartered
on May 1 and start the CEO job in June.
While Mr. Winters in recent years has been a CEO candidate at
other U.K. banks, his appointment Thursday is a surprise. He has
little direct experience in Standard Chartered's core emerging
markets or in commercial or retail lending. Mr. Peace said Mr.
Winters "brings substantial financial experience from leading a
successful global business and has an exceptional understanding of
the global regulatory and conduct environment."
Mr. Peace dismissed concerns about Mr. Winters's limited
experience and stressed that shareholders are supportive of the
appointment. Mr. Peace declined to comment on how long Mike Rees,
Standard Chartered's deputy CEO, plans to work for the bank.
Standard Chartered for a decade rode a wave of growth in Asian
lending markets. But a slowdown in some of its key markets and
rising regulatory costs have weighed on its results and led some
analysts to question its strategy and capital adequacy. Mr. Sands
laid out plans in January to shed thousands of jobs in Standard
Chartered's retail bank and shut its stock-trading business, but
the plans were regarded by many as insufficient to address the
bank's broader problems.
That put pressure on Mr. Sands and Mr. Peace to prove they could
turn the bank around or make way for those who could. In recent
weeks, Mr. Sands was privately pressed by some executives and
shareholders to resign, according to people familiar with the
matter. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last
month, some clients who met with Standard Chartered executives
expressed concerns to them about whether bank management was
getting distracted, The Wall Street Journal reported.
"I was never going to be here forever," Mr. Sands said
Thursday.
Analysts at Citigroup said the market was looking for a fresh
start. "We believe investors will welcome this material change in
[Standard Chartered's] leadership," they said.
Mr. Winters was only approached for the job a few weeks ago,
according to a person familiar with the CEO search. Mr. Winters was
seen as a strong candidate for his network of contacts, the fact
that he ran the European and Asian investment bank at J.P. Morgan
and because he got on well with Mr. Peace, the person said.
There were a handful of other candidates, some based in Asia,
but U.K. regulatory requirements and political scrutiny made it
very hard to lure them to a London-based role, people familiar with
the matter said.
Temasek Holdings Pte. Ltd., Standard Chartered's biggest
shareholder with 18%, said Mr. Winters brings "considerable
experience as well as an excellent reputation for building good
teams." The Singapore state investment company has been pressing
the bank for years to make changes to its governance and appoint
more independent directors, a slow process that was accelerated
with the naming Thursday of two new directors.
Gay Huey Evans, a former Barclays and Citigroup executive who
has also worked for the U.K.'s financial regulator, and Jasmine
Whitbread, the chief executive of nonprofit organization Save the
Children International, will join the board in April.
Longtime directors Ruth Markland, Paul Skinner and Oliver
Stocken will step down in the coming months.
Standard Chartered will release full-year results Tuesday that
are expected to show a rise in bad loans from customers hit by the
commodities selloff. Some analysts said they expect Mr. Winters to
take steps to boost the bank's capital buffers by selling new
shares, a move that Mr. Sands has long resisted.
Write to Margot Patrick at margot.patrick@wsj.com
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