Banking: What Santander’s failure to appoint Andrea Orcel as CEO means for the industry

Spanish-based group will struggle to overcome fall-out of recruitment U-turn, while Orcel’s situation raises broader questions for banks’ hiring and compensation strategies.

Andrea Orcel and Ana Botín

Andrea Orcel’s eventual non-appointment as chief executive of Santander will, in time, rank high on the list of dysfunctional succession plans in an industry known for some spectacular failures.

Jaws hit the floor in September when Orcel, the epitome of the investment banker, was named as the putative CEO of commercial- and retail-banking focused Santander.

It seemed an unlikely fit, despite the close professional relationship Orcel had developed with executive chairman Ana Botín across decades of advising and doing deals together.

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