Terry Murden: Standard Life's Crombie bows out gracefully – but who's next in line?

Published on Saturday 28 March 2009 16:13

SINCE taking over at Standard Life just over two years ago Sir Sandy Crombie has faced questions about when he would be stepping down. Would he depart on his 60th birthday in February? By the time he was blowing out the candles, everyone was so tired of asking, or so caught up in the banking crisis, that nobody noticed.

Now he really he is going, but on his terms. Good for him. As one of those who urged a succession plan, it is disappointing that the company has not named a successor. It has had plenty of time to think about it. But chairman Gerry Grimstone tells me he wants to have a good look at who's available.

His approach is in marked contrast to Prudential, which has promoted chief financial officer Tidjane Thiam to replace Mark Tucker in the top job from September. One in, one out leaves nothing to chance or speculation, but Grimstone says that his approach is a transparent way to go about the search, not least because it fits the governance agenda insisted upon by Standard Life Investments when it invests in companies.

We can expect headhunters to be appointed within a week or two and the search will be worldwide, though the obvious candidate is already working in Lothian Road. David Nish, finance director, who won admirers at ScottishPower, looks odds-on for the job, having quickly got to grips with a complex brief. He is a good communicator and well liked in the City. His only internal rival is SLI boss Keith Skeoch, who followed Crombie into the role and would fit the company's ambitions to be seen as a manager of assets. But unlike Crombie he is not a Standard Lifer. Maybe that's no bad thing, but having the life and pensions experience gave the current incumbent the broad experience that neither Nish nor Skeoch possesses. So don't dismiss Otto Thoresen, who has ably led Aegon UK, or Nick Prettejohn who runs Prudential's UK life business and was recently passed over for the top job at Prudential.

There is another post still to be filled at Standard Life: the head of UK life and pensions vacated by Trevor Matthews a year ago. Crombie has won plaudits for dovetailing the job with his own, but I'm told his successor is unlikely to do the same. Getting the top man is the priority so it looks like it could be another year before somebody takes up where Matthews left off.

Dunfermline outcome goes to the wire

THE saga over the Dunfermline Building Society's future gets ever more mysterious with claim and counter-claim muddying the waters. A decision to say nothing has hardly been the best form of defence, but this week it is finally expected to unveil figures that are already known and how it intends to continue.

However, there is much that is yet to be resolved. Today, as we report on page one, the Treasury appears to be casting doubt on elements of the rescue package, if indeed there is a rescue package. As we said last week, the talks between the Financial Services Authority and the society have been going on for six months but the crisis just seems to get deeper. There are even doubts as to whether or not a deadline for a deal exists. But sooner or later we will get some answers, probably on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Far from relying on a mere signature to get the money it requires to bolster its balance sheet, there are clearly some concerns as to its continued independence. Whatever shape the rescue takes, there at least seems little likelihood of it folding – the Treasury simply won't let that happen.

However, there are some worrying aspects about what is going on in the wider building society movement. Dunfermline is understood to be one of two societies that failed the stress test on capital ratios and one of probably 30 that may report losses this year.

While my Treasury source plays down any suggestion that a Dunfermline bail-out would prompt an avalanche of similar claims, there is clearly a need to examine the sector's overall strength.

As for the specific problems facing Dunfermline, the current board's silence owes something to feeling hard done by. Clearly they will suffer the wrath of members and the investment community, though they will be unfairly judged for decisions taken by the previous management. I understand they were desperately keen to have a deal in place before going public, but frustration with the FSA and Treasury may help write another chapter in this sorry story.