May 18 (Reuters) – Standard Chartered on Monday appointed Manus Costello as its permanent chief financial officer, succeeding Diego De Giorgi, who resigned in February after nearly three years with the bank.
StanChart had named Peter Burrill as its interim CFO in early February, following the abrupt exit of De Giorgi, who had left the Asia- and Africa-focused lender to join Apollo Global Management as head of the EMEA region.
StanChart said Costello would become the interim group chief financial officer first, effective immediately, and would join the board as an executive director, subject to regulatory approvals.
Costello, who joined the bank in 2024 as the global head of investor relations, has 25 years of experience in equity research, including as a founding partner and Global Head of Research at Autonomous, the bank said.
Prior to that he was at Merrill Lynch for 10 years in equity research based in London and New York, Costello’s LinkedIn page shows.
He will be based in London and report directly to Winters.
“He has made a significant contribution to the group’s strategic positioning and engagement of stakeholders, while also bringing strong rigour and an entrepreneurial mindset to the role,” Chief Executive Bill Winters said in a statement.
“This will further benefit Standard Chartered as we move forward into our next phase of growth and deliver on our medium-term financial objectives.”
The appointment came just a day before the bank’s group strategy update on Tuesday, at which the market anticipates a set of renewed growth plans as the lender approaches the end of a revamp during which a slew of cost-effective measures and divestitures were made.
StanChart also said Tanuj Kapilashrami would become the bank’s group chief operating officer. She is currently chief strategy and talent officer.
De Giorgi’s departure was seen by some analysts as a major blow to the bank. He had been viewed as a contender to succeed Winters, who vowed to stay and see through the group’s next strategy phase which could last around three years.
Winters is the longest-serving banking chief among large British banks since he took the role in 2015.
Standard Chartered posted a better-than-expected 17% profit gain for the first quarter last month, buoyed in part as Gulf countries rushed to raise funds via bond issuance, although it logged a $190 million charge to cover expected losses from the Iran war.
(Reporting by Rajasik Mukherjee in Bengaluru and Selena Li in Hong Kong; Writing by Scott Murdoch; Editing by Mark Porter, Edmund Klamann and Stephen Coates)
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