Canada’s Laurentian Bank (LB.TO), which had previously said it would streamline its organizational structure after failing to find a buyer during a strategic assessment, nominated insider Eric Provost as CEO on Monday.
Provost, who has worked for the ninth-largest lender in the nation for more than a decade, takes Rania Llewellyn’s post with immediate effect.
Michael Boychuk, who will take over for Michael Mueller as board chair, was also announced by Laurentian.
The lender said last month that Provost will assume a larger role as group head of personal and commercial banking after a strategy assessment led it to abandon its M&A ambitions.
Laurentian initiated the study in July, but later that month, a media report quoting sources said that Laurentian was having trouble finding an acquirer and that Canada’s two largest banks, Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS.TO) and Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD.TO), had withdrawn from a prospective acquisition.
A record rate of interest rate increases and a weakening property market are putting pressure on Canadian banks, forcing lenders to boost bad debt provisions. Shares of Laurentian have decreased by about 7% until yesterday’s closing.
