The directors of Standard Chartered rushed out a statement last night, giving emphatic support to the chairman Sir John Peace and chief executive Peter Sands amid growing shareholder pressure for heads to roll at the embattled blue-chip bank.
Institutional shareholders contacted by The Times said there was a widespread feeling that the leadership team needed refreshing after two profit warnings in seven months and pointed to Mr Sands as their preferred scalp.
One top-ten shareholder of the Asia-focused bank, speaking on condition of anonymity, voiced a growing frustration that the bank needed a hands-on manager rather than a high-level thinker. “Peter spends his time looking at the world economic picture rather than running a bloody bank,” he said.
Another senior shareholder said: “There is a