St James’s Place hires former Credit Suisse banker as CFO

ST James’s Place has named Caroline Waddington, an ex-Credit Suisse banker, as its new chief financial officer. 

She will join the UK’s largest wealth manager in the second half of the year and will replace Craig Gentle, who is retiring from the firm after having held the role since Jan 1, 2018, the firm said in a statement on Thursday (Jun 13). Gentle will stay on for a short period to help with the transition, it said.

Waddington spent about eight years at Credit Suisse and was its UK CFO after its merger with UBS Group. Prior to that, she had held stints at Deutsche Bank and Barclays, according to her LinkedIn profile.

The change comes amid recent turmoil at the British wealth manager over customer complaints and regulatory scrutiny of fees it charges clients. St James’s Place had £179 billion (S$309 billion) in assets under management at the end of 2023. 

In February, the firm set aside £426 million in provisions for potential refunds after reporting a “significant increase” in customer complaints in late 2023. The move followed new customer duty rules set out by the financial regulator, saying that advisers need to offer value for the money paid by clients for their services.

The money manager also cut investor payouts and capped annual shareholder distributions for three years in a bid to save money for potential refunds. In April, the board axed the annual bonus of former chief executive officer Andrew Croft. BLOOMBERG