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Standard Chartered appoints acting global legal head while group GC Fein wins new role in management reshuffle

Standard Chartered has appointed an acting global head of legal and compliance as incumbent Jamie Kelly goes on sabbatical while the bank’s group general counsel (GC) office has been reorganised amid the large scale overhaul of management by new chief executive Bill Winters.

The London-headquartered bank has appointed global head of legal and compliance business segments Neil Barry as its acting global head for legal and compliance as of 1 July following the decision of incumbent Kelly to go on sabbatical. Barry’s current role sees him cover corporate and institutional, retail, commercial and private banking, as well as the bank’s technology and operations work.

It is not known how long Kelly will be away from the bank but in his absence Barry will look after legal and compliance globally including financial crime compliance across Standard Chartered, as well as responsibility for around 1800 legal and compliance staff.

Meanwhile, on top of his current group GC duties David Fein has taken on the responsibility for corporate secretariat from Annemarie Durbin, who is leaving the bank. Durbin was company secretary and head of corporate secretariat but the business said that she was leaving, along with chief executive for Africa Diana Layfield staff, after, ‘both found it difficult to relocate into the roles for which they were considered.’

The statement that Fein is to take responsibility for corporate secretariat comes in the announcement that a new management team will lead and run the struggling bank to reposition it to ‘achieve superior performance’. The decision by Winters is billed to try and reverse Standard Chartered’s drop in revenue over the last two years while the bank is also reducing its workforce by 4,000 to help save around $1.8bn in costs before 2017.

In a statement Winters said: ‘Change is disruptive and unsettling but can also be energising. Let’s harness that energy to make Standard Chartered the best bank in the markets we serve and make the most of our extraordinary potential.’

Fein joined the bank as group GC in September 2013 after having served as US Attorney for the District of Connecticut and been a partner at Wiggin and Dana.

kathryn.mccann@legalease.co.uk