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Standard Chartered has named former Bank of America executive Diego De Giorgi as its new chief financial officer, replacing Andy Halford who is stepping down after more than nine years in the role.
De Giorgi, whose most prominent role was running BofA’s investment bank from 2015 to 2019, will join the London-listed, emerging markets-focused lender in September and start the role at the beginning of next year, according to a statement on Thursday.
The move puts De Giorgi in contention to succeed chief executive Bill Winters, who is one of Europe’s longest-serving bank bosses, having led StanChart since 2015. Winters inherited a bank in crisis and has overseen a dramatic overhaul of the balance sheet. Recently earnings have been improving as global interest rates have risen.
However, the bank’s shares have fallen 30 per cent under his leadership and StanChart still trades at about a 50 per cent discount to the book value of its shares. At the start of the year, First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) was considering a bid for the lender, but its interest has cooled.
De Giorgi will be part of a new cadre of executives focused on improving the group’s valuation, fending off takeover interest and navigating increasingly tense geopolitical relations between the US and China, its most important market.
“With over three decades of experience . . . he brings strong business experience, deep commercial acumen, strategic expertise and leadership skills,” Winters said in the statement.
The 53-year-old De Giorgi started his career as a Perella analyst and then joined Goldman Sachs in 1994, rising to become chief operating officer of its investment bank. He left in 2012 and joined BofA the following year. He was also briefly a board member at Italy’s UniCredit.
A recent venture did not go to plan. Pegasus Europe, a special purpose acquisition company he co-ran with former UniCredit chief executive Jean Pierre Mustier — with backing from LVMH founder Bernard Arnault — was wound up in April after failing to find a target in the financial services sector.
Halford, who had never been a banker when he joined from Vodafone in 2014, will retain an advisory position until his official retirement in August.