EFG International Appoints Team Head For Greece

Tom Burroughes

30 January 2014

Switzerland-headquartered said today its business in Luxembourg has appointed a team head covering Greece - a newly created role - in another development at the firm following a top-level management change at the group earlier in January.

The Zurich-listed firm said it has appointed Lena Lascari to the position with effect from 1 March. She will be a member of the management committee and report to François-Regis Montazel, managing director of EFG Bank (Luxembourg), the bank said in a statement.

Lascari will focus on the development of Greek high net worth individual business. She was most recently chief executive and managing director of Eurobank Private Bank, based in Luxembourg. Prior to this, she was head of wealth management at HSBC in Athens, Greece from 2001 to 2002 and, before that, spent 15 years at Credit Commercial de France, culminating as country CEO, Greek branches.

Earlier in January, EFG International said its chief financial officer, Giorgio Pradelli, was taking on the added role of deputy chief executive to allow his colleague and CEO, John Williamson, to focus more time on developing the firm’s five private banking operations. Pradelli now concentrates on EFGI’s operational and risk platform as well as taking on the deputy CEO role.

The past year or so has seen this bank, which at one stage suffered from a high cost/income ratio, make a number of restructuring moves to boost margins and overall profitability. In a trading update on Q3 figures for 2013, the bank said revenue-generating assets under management rose “slightly” while revenues and margins were affected by low interest rates, market conditions and a weaker dollar exchange rate.

Last September, EFG Bank, EFG International’s principal Swiss subsidiary, appointed a former top banker at BSI, Jean-Louis Platteau, as head of private banking in Geneva.