The Bank of Cyprus has announced John Hourican as the new CEO, ending the uncertainty surrounding the island’s biggest lender.
The bank’s new board had finalised a short-list of four candidates for the top job, including Mike Aynsley, former CEO of the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation. Interim CEO Christos Sorotos’s name was not included in the short-list.
Hourican, who was the head of the Royal Bank of Scotland’s investment banking arm, first task is to review the restructuring plan prepared by McKinsey Associates which will define the bank’s strategy, business model and risk appetite, including downsizing staff and the branch network and rethinking its single largest overseas asset, an 80% stake in the Russian bank Uniastrum.
The bank’s board said last week that the aim is “to create a healthy financial institution, by rebuilding trust and confidence of both depositors and investors, preserving the bank’s status as the cornerstone of the domestic economy and building a resilient institution, able to effectively manage its portfolio of assets and withstand further external shocks and economic turbulence.”
These are plans spearheaded by interim CEO Sorotos who took over at the end of May and stepped down at the bank’s controversial AGM on September 10.