Laurentian Bank appoints new CEO after computer mainframe outage

Laurentian Bank of Canada reported net income of $55.9 million for its third quarter, down from $62.1 million in the same quarter last year, as its provision for bad loans rose compared with a year ago. Laurentian Bank headquarters are seen Tuesday, April 5, 2022 in Montreal. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

Laurentian Bank announced the appointment of Eric Provost as president and chief executive on Monday, following a computer outage at the bank last week.

Provost replaces Rania Llewellyn in the top job, effective immediately. He was most recently Laurentian's group head of personal and commercial banking.

The bank also said director Michael Boychuk has been appointed chair of its board of directors, replacing Michael Mueller, who has resigned from the board.

"We have experienced challenges recently and the board is confident that Eric will successfully focus the organization on our customer experience and operational effectiveness," Boychuk said in a statement.

"Eric's appointment as CEO follows his exceptional performance leading our commercial banking business and was part of our formal succession planning process."

Laurentian Bank chief executive Rania Llewellyn speaks to shareholders at the company’s annual meeting Tuesday, April 5, 2022 in Montreal. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

Laurentian said it suffered a mainframe outage last week during a planned IT maintenance update. It said customer data and financial information remained secure at all times.

The bank said Provost's immediate priority will be to rebuild trust with the bank's customers and address the impacts of the outage.

"Once the issues related to the outage are fully behind us, we will develop a new plan to ensure the sustained success of our bank," Provost said.

"We will focus our efforts on renewing the trust of loyal customers while continuing our efforts to drive greater operational efficiency and growth in all our business lines."

As an initial step, the bank said it will reverse all monthly service fees for September as soon as possible.

Last month, Laurentian completed its review of strategic options without a deal to sell the bank.

A strategic review is often seen by investors as a prelude to a sale by a company. However, Laurentian said it will work on simplifying its organizational structure and focusing on allocating capital and resources to its highest grossing businesses and specialized products.

Laurentian said it would share more information when it reports its fourth-quarter results on Dec. 7 and will unveil a renewed strategic plan at an investor day early in 2024.

The bank has been working through a three-year strategic plan it launched in late 2021 to modernize operations, including with the rollout of its first mobile banking app.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Oct. 2, 2023.