The Cooperative Bank is hoping to make steps towards digging itself out of a deep hole by recruiting Niall Booker as its new chief executive.
Niall Booker was chief executive of HSBC‘s North American arm of the business but was axed in 2011 as part of the banks restructuring measures. He is expected to join the Cooperative Bank in June. His appointment has been made with input from the PRA (Prudential Regulation Authority).
The PRA became responsible for the regulation and supervision of British banks, building societies and other financial sectors in April of this year.
The new head at the helm will be a welcome change as the bank looks to recover from the downgrading of its credit rating on a massive scale by Moody’s last month. The banks previous chief executive was dismissed after being attributed with the responsibility of the collapse of the deal with Lloyds TSB to buy 632 branches as part of its expansion.
The Co-op has also been in discussions with the PRA about selling off some of its assets such as toxic loans to raise money against the huge deficit that it has in its capital. Its current deficit is believed to be in the region of £1.8billion.
Despite Moody’s saying that the bank could require government help Co-op insisted that they weren’t in financial trouble and definitely wouldn’t require a bail out.
Booker is expected to be a great candidate for the bank according to insiders because of his availability to start almost immediately and hit the ground running. Although the news agencies are reporting the appointment of Booker, the Cooperative Bank has so far declined to comment.