Simon Cooper ends an eight-year stint at Standard Chartered

The head of Standard Chartered’s investment bank is leaving as part of a leadership overhaul designed to boost performance at the emerging markets lender.

Simon Cooper — who has led the trading, capital markets and corporate banking unit from Singapore since joining from HSBC in 2016 — “will leave the group to pursue other interests”, the bank said on Tuesday.

His role will be taken over jointly by trading boss Roberto Hoornweg in Dubai and Singapore-based Sunil Kaushal, head of Africa and the Middle East. To cut costs and complexity at the investment bank “the regional dimension will be removed from the structure”, meaning several senior roles will disappear, StanChart said.

Cooper’s departure ends an eight-year stint running the largest business division at the London-based bank, during which he became the leading internal candidate to succeed chief executive Bill Winters. However, the arrival of former Bank of America dealmaker Diego De Giorgi as chief financial officer at the start of the year introduced a strong rival for the top job.

Winters has also shown no signs of stepping down despite his almost nine-year tenure making him by far the longest-serving chief executive of a big British bank.

“These changes will ensure we have the strongest possible team in place, with clear accountabilities, to drive our transformation efforts and bring renewed intensity to our focus on increased growth and returns,” Winters said in a statement.

Last month at its full-year earnings presentation Winters lamented the bank’s “crap” share price, which has fallen about a third during his time in charge.

The overhaul is the latest attempt to galvanise profitability, UK political figures such as top civil servant Sir Charles Roxburgh and former chancellor Sir Sajid Javid. In early 2023, the bank was also the target of a potential bid by First Abu Dhabi Bank, which has since withdrawn its interest.

Other executives were given expanded roles as part of the latest reshuffle. Judy Hsu, who runs consumer and private banking, will also oversee China and North Asian markets from Hong Kong.

Ben Hung, head of Asia and another long-serving CEO contender, will gain the title president of international, a role that the bank said would “[focus] on the group’s priority to deliver for its clients across markets, balancing the need to drive global business strategies while maintaining appropriate local focus”.
-Financial Times