Live news: Laurentian Bank CEO Rania Llewellyn leaves, effective immediately

financialpost.com:

Laurentian Bank of Canada said chief executive Rania Llewellyn will leave the company immediately and will be replaced by personal and commercial banking chief Eric Provost.

Llewellyn, the first woman to lead a major Canadian bank, departs after the Montreal-based lender concluded a review of strategic options without a sale. In September, it said it would try to ramp up its current strategy, which includes growth in commercial lending and technology upgrades.

Provost’s priority, according to a statement from the bank, will be to “rebuild trust” with customers and address the impacts of a mainframe outage that occurred last week. The outage occurred during a planned technology maintenance update, the bank said and added that customer data and financial information remained secure at all times.

“Eric is the right executive to lead the bank at this critical point in its evolution,” said Michael Boychuk, who was appointed chair of the board as Michael Mueller resigned. “We have experienced challenges recently and the board is confident that Eric will successfully focus the organization on our customer experience and operational effectiveness.”

Provost will implement a three-part plan to fully resolve any outstanding issues related to the outage, enhance communications with customers and launch a review of the technical issues.

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

From ultra-low interest rates that led to a huge spike in real estate demand to the speed with which interest rates shot up to levels not seen in a generation, it’s been hard to keep up with the shifting landscape for mortgage borrowers.

Now, with interest rates increasingly expected to stay