Last roll of the dice for AMP

AMP knows it doesn’t have many chances left as it sets Francesco De Ferrari the task of righting its scandal-hit ship.

The AMP building in Sydney. Hollie Adams/The Australian

AMP chair David Murray noted today “we don’t have too many more chances to get things right” which neatly summarises the challenge ahead of new boss Francesco De Ferrari.

The good news for beleaguered AMP shareholders is, on paper, De Ferrari looks first rate and a builder rather than a cut-and-run operator.

Which other Australian company has a boss who met the late Mother Teresa and helped her rescue dying people from the Calcutta streets.

From there he went to Nestle and then after three years with the multinational started three companies back in Italy, which ranged from arranging art exhibitions and selling sunglasses to founding a tech start-up, he then ended up at Credit Suisse.

In his early years he worked in the audit department at Deloitte.

His claim to fame is he buys all the new financial services products sold by the firm so the sales staff know if the products are duds they will have an unhappy boss as well as unhappy customers. The initial market reaction was positive given the stock went ex a 10 cent dividend today and was down eight cents at $3.38 in lunch time trade.

The 49-year-old Singaporean born Italian and Swiss national comes from a 17-year career at Credit Suisse where he ran its private banking operation.

Insiders describe him as a strategic thinker who can drive cultural change and note how he tripled the size of the Credit Suisse private banking operation.

He joins on a $11.7 million sign-on bonus which will depend in part on stock price performance, with a maximum annual pay of $8.3m.

His $2.2m turn up to work pay is about in line with the big bank boss’s fixed pay.

Murray felt someone from outside Australia was the best choice given the royal commission noise but De Ferrari also comes from inside the tent to an extent given new board member John O’Sullivan used to chair Credit Suisse Australia and Murray (who hired O’Sullivan to be CBA’s in-house lawyer) was on the Credit Suisse advisory board.

The chance to run a listed company lured him to the job plus the history and brand power still left at AMP.

He came to Australia last month to meet with the Murray and the rest of the AMP board after being head hunted by Neil Waters at Egon Zehnder.

After finishing in the top one per cent of his class at the Stern Business School in New York, he accepted a job at Goldman Sachs but never took up the appointment.

On paper, De Ferrari is someone who regards regulators as people you need to work with not against and argues if AMP can’t get it right then the country has a problem.

This said, he has a big job ahead to restore a business who’s credibility was trashed by the royal commission.

On the brighter side, if the new boss is as good he looks at a time when the banks are running as fast as they can from wealth management then just maybe there is some upside for the old house.