London headquartered Standard Chartered Bank has appointed a former International Monetary Fund unit head as its new Chairman. Incumbent Sir John Peace will stand down at the end of this year.

José Vinals who is is currently the Financial Counsellor and Director of the Monetary and Capital Markets Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), will join the Standard Chartered Board as Chairman designate on 3 October 2016.

Recent Troubles

The bank, who's largest shareholder is Singapore's Sovereign Wealth Fund, has been fighting back after recent poor results and a high profile case in the U.S when it was fined $300 million by the New York Department of Financial Services for breach of money-laundering compliance issues.

Vinals began his career as an economist before spending 25 years at the Central Bank of Spain, where he rose to be the Deputy Governor, with responsibility for all areas of the Central Bank, including monetary policy, banking regulation and supervision.

He has held many other Board and advisory positions including Chair of Spain’s Deposit Guarantee Fund, Chair of the International Relations Committee at the European Central Bank, member of the Economic and Financial Committee of the European Union, and Chair of the Working Group on Institutional Investors at the Bank for International Settlements

Four Day Week

In his current role his responsibilities include the oversight and direction of the IMF’s monetary and financial sector work, and he is the IMF’s chief spokesman on financial matters, including global financial stability. He was a member of the Plenary and Steering Committee of the Financial Stability Board for seven years, playing a key role in the reform of international financial regulation.

The bank said the selection was made after an extensive external search led by Naguib Kheraj, Senior Independent Director.

José will spend up to four days a week on average on his duties as non-executive Chairman of the Group. The Chairmanship of Standard Chartered will be his primary occupation and he will be available to spend whatever time is necessary to fulfill the role. José will relocate to London, and travel extensively around the Bank’s network as part of his role.

New Deputy

«José brings deep and extensive economic, political and regulatory experience of our markets and an exceptional grasp and understanding of the international financial system. We have made significant progress in the delivery of our strategic objectives and I look forward to working with José on the next phase of the Group’s growth. He’s a proven leader, truly global in his perspective and I am delighted that we’ll be working together,» said Bill Winters, Group Chief Executive.

The Group is also announcing the appointment of Naguib Kheraj, as Deputy Chairman. Naguib joined the Board in January 2014 and will retain his existing Senior Independent Director and other committee roles.