Bill Winters the new Standard Chartered CEO sent out a rallying call yesterday on his first official day.
Winters said, “I’ve reached one clear conclusion: this is a fabulous bank. Our clients want us to succeed; we are determined, ethical and capable; and we are strong in markets that will present outstanding opportunities for decades to come. This truly inspires me.”
Hinting that there may soon be changes and acknowledging recent struggles he went on to say, “After a long period of strong growth, the past several years have been challenging for all of you. We have made mistakes and our performance has suffered. Some of the challenges come from the external environment and that is unlikely to change. We must think hard about the challenges that are structural and reposition accordingly. We will do that.”
No business units were singled out in Winters address.
It looks like Winters is going to be rolling his sleeves up immediately telling the global personnel that over the next few months he would be finalising new plans and that a new management structure would be announced by the end of the summer.
The previous CEO Peter Sands had tried to stem the decline of the UK headquartered bank by closing down underperforming units however his efforts came too late to save his position.
The largest shareholder in the bank, the Government of Singapore’s Temasek Holdings will of course be watching closely.
