Danske Bank Names Commerzbank's Stephan Engels as Chief Financial Officer

By Dominic Chopping

Danske Bank A/S (DANSKE.KO) on Thursday named Stephan Engels as its new Chief Financial Officer, replacing Christian Baltzer who will leave the bank, as the troubled lender shuffles its board room amid accusations of a huge-money laundering scandal.

Stephan Engels has been CFO of Commerzbank AG (CBK.XE) since 2012 and is expected to take up his new position in April 2020. Until that time, Danske's wealth management chief Jacob Aarup-Andersen will act as CFO before moving to head up the bank's Danish banking activities.

Danske is being investigated by authorities in Estonia, Denmark, France and the U.S. over allegations that around $230 billion in suspicious funds from Russia and other former Soviet states entered Europe through its tiny branch in Estonia.

The bank said in conjunction with its second-quarter results that no material developments regarding the money-laundering case took place in the second quarter, but that it continues to have a negative impact in terms of customer satisfaction and outflow among retail customers in Denmark.

New Chief Executive Chris Vogelzang was appointed in May following an eight-month search, after the money-laundering revelations led to the previous CEO quitting.

In further management changes Thursday, Chief Operating Officer Jim Ditmore will leave his position while Berit Behring has been appointed head of wealth management. The search for a new COO is underway, the bank said.

Danske is also dissolving its group development unit, with activities in the unit transferring to other banking areas. Frederik Gjessing Vinten, who heads the division, will leave the bank in mid-November.

Write to Dominic Chopping at [e-mail]; @domchopping @WSJNordics

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 05, 2019 03:24 ET (07:24 GMT)

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