New CEO to concentrate on insurance rather than banking
Belgian insurance group Fortis is to replace chief executive Karel De Boeck with its current insurance division boss Bart De Smet as the firm has ditched its banking business and wants to rebuild itself as an insurer, the FT reports.
Peer van Harten, the head of the international insurance arm, is also leaving at the end of the month. Fortis said it would not immediately replace him.
De Boeck is being replaced officially because his background is in banking.
Unofficially, Fortis executives say that he had lost the support of the board, and that the working relationship between Mr De Boeck and Jozef De Mey, the company’s chairman, had deteriorated, the FT says.
Bart De Smet, 51, who currently leads the Belgian insurance operation, is to take over as chief executive from 1 July.
