National Bank of Canada promotes Ferreira to CEO, succeeding Vachon

(Reuters) -National Bank of Canada, the smallest of Canada's Big Six banks, on Wednesday named insider Laurent Ferreira chief executive officer, succeeding the country's longest-serving major bank head Louis Vachon, who will retire on Oct. 31 after nearly 14 1/2 years in the role.

Ferreira, who has been at Montreal-based National Bank since 1998, is currently chief operating officer, a role he only took on in February, when he also joined the Board of Directors.

Prior to that, he had been co-head of financial markets since August 2018.

"Over the course of his career, Laurent has demonstrated a decisive and unifying leadership approach, always quick to identify and seize growth opportunities," Vachon said in a statement.

Vachon also served a short stint as National Bank's COO just before he became CEO in June 2007. The bank has delivered an annual shareholder return of 13% from the time Vachon took over the helm to July 31, according to a company statement.

National Bank shares have tripled in value during Vachon's tenure, versus a 45.5% gain in the Toronto stocks benchmark

(Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Chizu Nomiyama)

By Nichola Saminather and Niket Nishant