CYPRUS: Coop bank chairman steps into CEO’s shoes

Nicholas Hadjiyiannis has stepped down as Chairman of the state-rescued Cooperative Central Bank and has taken up the post of the bank’s new CEO after Marios Clerides resigned on June 22, half-way through his contract.

Clerides’ resignation fuelled rumours that he may have been groomed as the next Governor of the Central Bank of Cyprus, a post not without its share of controversy of late. At the same time, the fact that biggest lender Bank of Cyprus had also failed to find a new CEO for John Hourican who is leaving at the end of August having orchestrated a successful multi-billion recapitalisation, has fuelled fresh rumours that Clerides may have been approached for that job.
There had also been talk that the CCB’s chief executive may had a falling out with the bank’s board, particularly over handling the issue of non-performing loans and how to proceed to recover assets or collateral.
At its meeting on July 9, the supervisory board of the CCB, that was rescued last year with a 1.5 bln bailout from ECB funds afforded to the government, reviewed the short list suggested by consultants Egon Zehnder and opted for Hadjiyiannis appointment, which is also a reasonable choice seeing as he had spearheaded the government’s rescue plan and embarked on an ambitious restructuring that included shrinking the branch network and maintaining only 18 subsidiary Coop savings banks.
Deputy board chairman Pambis Christodoulides will step up as acting chairman until a new head is appointed to the bank’s board.