MALAYSIA’S banking sector has seen quite a number of senior-level movements and resignations over the last few months, leading to management revamps in at least six banks.

The changes, which began last year, seem to have picked up steam this year.

In less than six months, four local banking groups (CIMB Group Holdings Bhd, AMMB Holdings Bhd, RHB Capital Bhd and Alliance Bank Malaysia Bhd) and four foreign banks (Citibank Bhd, Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia Bhd, Kuwait Finance House Malaysia Bhd and Al Rajhi Banking & Investment Corp Malaysia Bhd) have either announced new leaders or that their leaders are leaving.

Others, like Hong Leong Bank Bhd, have made key management appointments.

“I think these changes are happening for different reasons — some are the result of long-serving staff wanting to leave while others are moving up the career ladder — and it’s purely coincidental that it all seems to be taking place at around the same time,” says a senior industry official, who has been in banking for over 20 years.

“But a change of guard is good, in most instances. We’re a small market ... we need new blood, new energy, new ideas every few years. This is especially so in banking and investment banking — there’s always a need to refresh as there are so many changes in IT, changes to the rules. The environment has got a lot tougher, so people also need to change. I don’t see any cause for concern.”

The ball started rolling in September last year when Tengku Datuk Zafrul Aziz of CIMB (fundamental: 1.35; valuation: 2.1) — who had joined the group in January from Malayan Banking Bhd — took the helm from Datuk Seri Nazir Razak.

Nazir vacated the CEO’s seat to become the group chairman while Zafrul became acting CEO of the country’s second largest banking group.

Then, in October, Citibank appointed Lee Lung Nien as its new CEO. Lee succeeded Sanjeev Nanavati, Citibank’s longest-serving CEO, who left in July last year.

On Jan 1 this year, Alliance Financial Group Bhd (AFG) appointed Joel Kornreich as the group CEO of its banking unit Alliance Bank Malaysia. Kornreich, who was the country business manager of Citibank’s global consumer group in South Korea, took over from Singaporean Sng Seow Wah, who left the group in October last year.

Two months later, it was announced that Sng would be made president director of Indonesian lender PT Bank Danamon Indonesia Tbk when its current leader, Henry Ho, retires this year. Singapore’s investment arm, Temasek Holdings, is a substantial shareholder of both Bank Danamon and AFG (fundamental: 2; valuation: 2.2).

Just last week, RHB (fundamental: 1.5; valuation: 2.1) announced that its group managing director Kellee Kam had resigned. Sources told The Edge Financial Daily that RHB’s deputy group managing director Datuk Khairussaleh Ramli was among the shortlisted names to succeed Kam.

Kam, who had taken on his current role four years ago in 2011, had been with the RHB group for 13 years. It will be interesting to see where he emerges. In its announcement to Bursa Malaysia on Feb 12, RHB said the group had a succession plan in place and will execute a transition plan for the smooth handover of responsibilities to Kam’s potential successor.

Sources also tell The Edge that Ong Ju Yan, head of RHB Investment Bank’s group corporate and investment banking services, has resigned and will be joining his family business. Ong is the eldest son of Tan Sri Ong Leong Huat, a major shareholder of RHB and the founder of the OSK group.

On Jan 29, AMMB (fundamental: 1.7; valuation: 3) announced that its group managing director Ashok Ramamurthy would be stepping down as part of a planned transition, confirming an earlier report by theedgemarkets.com that a major shake-up at the top level of AmBank Group was on the cards.

Sources also told theedgemarkets.com last month that the managing director of wholesale banking coverage, Pushpa Rajadurai, and the managing director of AmInvestment Bank Bhd, Kok Tuck Cheong, would also be leaving the group when their contracts expire.

In a statement to the stock exchange, AMMB said it had commenced the process of identifying a replacement for the group managing director’s position. It also said Pushpa, Kok and group chief financial officer Mandy Simpson had existing contracts and would continue to serve the group in accordance with them.

AMMB also announced last week that it had appointed Datuk Seri Ahmad Johan Raslan as its senior adviser and board member. Johan is the former executive chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers Malaysia.

Last Tuesday, Standard Chartered Bank said it had appointed Mahendra Gursahani as its managing director and CEO for Malaysia with immediate effect. Mahendra, who has been with Standard Chartered for over 20 years, succeeds Osman Morad, who has retired.

Late last year, Al Rajhi’s CEO Datuk Azrulnizam Abdul Aziz quit after 2½ years at the helm. The bank has since appointed Selamat Sirat as its acting CEO.

And then in November, another foreign Islamic bank — KFH Malaysia — announced that its CEO Datuk Seri Abdul Hamidy Abdul Hafiz had tendered his resignation. The board then appointed chief recovery officer Datuk Mohamad Aslam Khan Gulam Hassan as the acting CEO.

Earlier this month, CIMB announced a further management reshuffle as part of its new mid-term strategy plan. The reshuffle also came about because three key staff members — Datuk Lee Kok Kwan (CEO of corporate banking, treasury and markets), Kenny Kim (group CFO and CEO of group strategy and strategic investments) and Arwin Rashid (president director and CEO of Bank CIMB Niaga) — expressed their desire to eventually leave the group, The Edge reported, citing sources.

All three no longer hold management roles in the new line-up. Lee and Kim, in particular, who have been with the group for many years and are among Nazir’s trusted lieutenants, were given advisory roles. Lee will also become a board member while Arwin retires in a few months.

Meanwhile, Hong Leong Bank made two senior appointments to its management team. Dominic Mascrinas was made chief operating officer for group strategic support while Charles Sik was made chief operating officer for personal financial services effective Feb 4.

Mascrinas was previously CIMB Investment Bank’s group head of operations for regional consumer and wholesale bank operations, and IT and operations head for the wholesale bank in Malaysia. Sik had been RHB Bank’s head of group retail banking.

Note: The Edge Research’s fundamental score reflects a company’s profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based on historical numbers. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations. Visit www.theedgemarkets.com for more details on a company’s financial dashboard.

This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on February 23 - 29, 2015.

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