(Bloomberg) -- Danske Bank A/S has named Chris Vogelzang as its chief executive officer, ending months of speculation over who will steer Denmark’s biggest bank through the continuing fallout of its money-laundering scandal.
The 56-year-old Dutchman and ABN Amro Group N.V. veteran will start June 1. He replaces Jesper Nielsen, who has been running Danske on an interim basis since October, when Danske’s dirty-money saga ended the career of Thomas Borgen.
Russell Quelch, an equity specialist at Redburn in London, said that “the market will welcome the fact that it’s an external candidate. The bank needs to start afresh, post the money laundering saga.”
Shares in Danske rose almost 3% after trading started in Copenhagen.
Vogelzang “brings many years of management experience from the financial sector,” Danske said, including a stint from 2000 to 2017 at ABN Amro, the last eight years of which were as a member of its management board and head of its global retail and private banking activities.
Danske has purged large chunks of its upper ranks after last year taking center stage in what may be Europe’s worst ever dirty money scandal. Denmark’s biggest bank revealed in a September report that a “large part” of around $230 billion that flowed through a non-resident Estonian unit over a nine-year period was suspicious.
The saga wiped out almost half the bank’s market value last year, and triggered criminal investigations in the U.S. and across Europe. Borgen, who was ousted in October, had previously been in charge of Danske’s Baltic operations. Shortly after he left, Danske’s biggest shareholder got rid of the chairman, Ole Andersen.
Danske had tried to replace Borgen earlier, but failed to get its initial candidate approved. The Financial Supervisory Authority rejected a proposal to have the bank run by Jacob Aarup-Andersen, a 41-year-old who runs Danske’s wealth business and who used to be the chief financial officer, citing his lack of relevant experience.
Quelch at Redburn said he has questions about the choice of CEO. “The fact is that he has no previous CEO experience and turning Danske around isn’t going to be a simple task,” he said. “So in my view, the appointment is a tick-box exercise -- getting someone in the seat so that the group can start to move forward with the new strategy. But I don’t think he’s going to excite investors in terms of his experience. He obviously does have experience, but not CEO experience.”
Vogelzang was once a candidate to become CEO at ABN Amro, to succeed Gerrit Zalm in 2017, who joined Danske’s board in March. But the Dutch state, which is a majority shareholder, and the supervisory board blocked the move. Not long after that, ABN cut several management jobs and Vogelzang left.
Danske faces years of investigations as prosecutors across multiple jurisdictions sift through the evidence. Investors are hoping that having a new CEO will allow Danske to focus on its business amid fears that the scandal is driving away clients and investors.
“Despite its current challenges, Danske Bank has all the prerequisites to continue to be a strong and competitive bank that creates value for all its stakeholders,” Vogelzang said in the statement.
Borgen, 55, is reportedly among 10 former Danske bankers to have been met with preliminary charges as the laundering investigation continues. The development comes as Denmark takes several steps to tighten its anti-money laundering laws, including the possibility of prison sentences and considerably tougher fines.
(Adds background on Vogelzang.)