NatWest Group Plc will start a search for a new chair as Howard Davies prepares to step down by mid-2024.
(Bloomberg) — NatWest Group Plc will start a search for a new chair as Howard Davies prepares to step down by mid-2024.
“It is appropriate to initiate the search for my successor as chairman in the coming months,” Davies said at the bank’s annual meeting Tuesday. “This will allow time for a rigorous search process and an orderly handover, which I expect will take place at some point before I reach nine years tenure in July 2024.”
Nine years is the maximum length of service recommended by the UK’s Corporate Governance Code.
Davies, 72, was deputy governor of the Bank of England from 1995 to 1997 and chairman of the Financial Services Authority — then the UK markets regulator — from 1997 to 2003.
In recent years, NatWest has steadily reduced the size of the UK government’s stake in the bank. The Treasury currently owns about 42% of voting rights in the company, down from around 52% at the start of last year.
“That is positive progress on the path to full privatisation,” Davies said.
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