Succession season
This year marks a changing of the guard at the very top of some of Australia's biggest banks. Could CBA's Matt Comyn be the next to move on — and possibly seek a more lucrative role overseas?
There will be a shake-up in the most senior executive ranks of Australia’s financial services sector this year. Whether that extends to the biggest financial services company in the nation — Commonwealth Bank — is the $200 billion question.
Yesterday’s story in our Capital Gains newsletter on the future of CBA’s highly regarded and 49-year-old CEO Matt Comyn generated plenty of feedback from investors, analysts, industry executives and headhunters. Everyone thinks Comyn has done a good job, maybe even a great job, as reflected in CBA’s gravity-defying share price.
But opinion is split on whether Comyn will try to cling to a role he has already held for five years (six to eight year stints are considered optimal for a CEO) or seek pastures new, perhaps overseas. The best CEOs have an innate knack for timing — with CBA shares currently in the stratosphere, this might be as good as it gets for the big lender.
If Comyn did decide to look offshore, he’d almost certainly make a lot more money. As one investor told me today, if Matt Comyn was running a US retail bank like Wells Fargo, for example, he would be paid $20 to $30 million with almost none of the profile. Comyn took home about $10 million last year.
