Standard Chartered's new chief risk officer is adding women to her team
Standard Chartered has continued the overhaul of its risk function with a big appointment in London.
Rosaline Laverley has joined the bank as a chief risk officer and managing director, marking a return to investment banking. She joins from Funding Circle UK but prior to that worked in the risk functions at Bank of America and also Morgan Stanley.
Laverley’s appointment comes after Sadia Ricke started her role as group chief risk officer on February 1. Ricke, who was previously chief risk officer at Société Générale carries some clout as she reports directly into CEO Bill Winters.
This month, the bank also appointed Divyesh Vithlani as group chief transformation officer based in Singapore. Vithlani is a former Credit Suisse banker who most recently spent seven years at Accenture.
Transformation seems to be an important theme at Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters has been revamping his senior team as he boosts the bank’s sustainability credentials. In January, the bank hired John Murton, the UK government’s former COP26 envoy as a senior sustainability adviser reporting to Marisa Drew, who joined from Credit Suisse as chief sustainability officer in July 2022.
The appointments come as Standard Chartered is seen as a potential takeover target following interest from First Abu Dhabi (FAB) bank. In January, FAB said it was at “very early stages” of evaluating a possible offer for Standard Chartered, but latterly it declared that it “was no longer doing so”. Nonetheless, FAB says it could return with an offer within six months or if a rival bidder emerges.
Bankers in Singapore told eFinancialCareers that a concrete offer for StanChart, which is under pressure to boost returns, could trigger interest more locally from the likes of Singapore’s DBS. “If Standard Chartered is broken up, I could see DBS being interested in the retail side of the business or even the investment banking division,” said a banker in the financial institutions group of one bank who has looked at Standard Chartered.
UK-listed Asia-focused Standard Chartered has a core business in South East Asia, a region that has attracted more attention recently from western banks which are looking to diversify their APAC presence following a sharp slowdown in their business in Greater China, and amid rising political tensions between the US and China.
Standard Chartered climbed three places to eighth in the corporate finance revenue ranking in south-east Asia last year, according to Dealogic. DBS was ranked sixth.
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