A Danske Bank A/S veteran who was part of the executive exodus during a 200 billion-euro ($210 billion) money-laundering scandal will now become the chief executive officer of Denmark’s second-largest listed lender.
Lars Stensgaard Morch next month succeeds Anders Dam, who retires after 26 years as head of Jyske Bank A/S, the lender said in a statement on Monday.
Morch, 51, joined Jyske in 2021 as director responsible for business strategy, having previously worked almost two decades at Danske in various top jobs. He left abruptly in 2018 amid revelations of Danske’s laundering scandal and was together with other executives subsequently charged.
The cases were dropped in 2021 after the evidence uncovered during an investigation didn’t reveal that they were guilty of gross negligence. Morch has now obtained fit and proper approval by the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority to work as CEO, Jyske said.
Morch, who had been responsible for Danske’s scandal-hit Baltic operations, had resigned after weeks of discussions with the board and would possibly have been fired had he not left on his own, Danske’s chairman at the time, Ole Andersen, said in an interview with Ritzau Finans.
Dam, 67, will retire at the end of the month after almost 34 years at Jyske. It’s the second of Denmark’s major banks to lose its CEO in a few weeks, after Sydbank A/S in late September said Karen Frosig will retire.
Morch played an important role in Jyske’s recent takeover of Svenska Handelsbanken AB’s Danish activities and brings an “in-depth knowledge of the financial sector,” Chairman Kurt Bligaard Pedersen, said in the statement.
--With assistance from Rob Dawson.
(Updates with details about Morch’s departure in fifth paragraph)
