The Sunday Times (January 21st, 2016) reports that StanChart is "drawing a blank" in its hunt for a new chairman. Sir John Peace is stepping down shortly and the search for a new chairman, led by Naguib Kheraj, senior independent director, has apparently not yielded results. The Times posits that the chairman role is a thankless one these days and quotes one of the bank's top ten shareholders as saying the role requires a lot of work. It also points out that recent regulatory driven changes in the boardroom makes the role more accountable, including a duty of responsibility and the risk of compensation clawback if the bank is fined on their watch.
I have some sympathy for this position. Large, complex global banks have lots of moving parts and expecting the chairman, say a non-executive role without day to day responsibility nor access to operations, to bear these risks may be needed but is also a high standard. All of this is consistent with the UK Senior Manager's Regime which came into effect last year.
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