Standard Bank Plc's charismatic co-head of commodities Jim Coupland is on temporary leave for personal reasons, his counterpart Mark Buncombe to take over day-to-day reins of one of the world's top metals banks, the bank said on Friday.
A bank representative did not specify a date for the return of Coupland, 57, who started Standard's base metals futures trading business two decades ago and made it one of the first Western banks to break into China.
Coupland goes on leave at a challenging time for Standard Bank as it seeks to recoup millions of dollars in losses from a metal financing scandal in China's Qingdao port that rocked markets last year.
Standard Bank's exposure to the purported fraud was about $170 million worth of aluminium, but the co-chief executive has said it was "too early" to tell whether or not further writedowns were needed. The bank is a subsidiary of Standard Bank Group, Africa's largest lender.
Coupland did not return calls seeking comment.
Emails sent to his work address came back with an out of office reply saying: "I am currently on leave and have limited access to email".
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