Executive Search: A Banking Head of Corporate Case Study

How Stanton Chase banked on overlooked Serbian banking talent to deliver a new Head of Corporate

>The Background

A Fast-Growing Serbian Bank in Need of a Head of Corporate

Our client is a Serbian bank and part of a regional financial group operating across Southeastern Europe. The bank offers consumer loans for individuals alongside corporate banking and SME lending for businesses with revenues of up to 40 million EUR. Its position in the Serbian banking market rests on speed: an AI-driven credit approval system processes loans up to 500,000 EUR in 48 hours, against an industry standard of 15 to 20 days, while most other corporate loans clear inside seven days.

When the bank’s growth started to outpace its senior leadership bench, the board called Stanton Chase in to run a banking executive search for a new Head of Corporate.

>The Challenge

A Frozen Senior Banking Talent Pool in Serbia

This banking executive search in Serbia turned out to be harder than a typical Head of Corporate placement, for three connected reasons.

To start with, the bank does not currently sit in Serbia’s top ten institutions, which limits its profile as an employer in the senior banking community. Candidates from Serbia’s top five banks consistently showed little interest in moving to a smaller player, however fast-growing.

Then there was the shareholder problem. Several competing banks in the Serbian banking market are shareholders in the same regional financial group as our client, which immediately closed off some of the most obvious senior banking talent pools we would normally tap in Belgrade.

And finally, the bank had recently appointed a new CEO from a neighboring country in Southeastern Europe. He arrived with a track record of strong commercial results, and a reputation for ambitious, performance-driven leadership. That combination gave some otherwise interested senior banking professionals pause.

>The Solution

Banking on Talent Two Levels Below the Senior Tier

With the senior banking job market in Serbia relatively frozen, a conventional Head of Corporate executive search was unlikely to deliver. We rewrote the brief.

We widened the geographic search to cover all of Serbia and invested our attention in high-performing leaders working up to two levels below the Head of Corporate role at other Serbian banks. These were corporate banking professionals with both the capability and the appetite to step into a Head of Corporate position, but who were often invisible inside more conventional senior-only banking executive searches.

That move broadened the candidate pool considerably and gave us access to corporate banking talent in Serbia that had been overlooked despite excellent performance records.

The candidate we placed was serving as Head of a Regional Center, reporting to the Head of SME at his previous bank. Shortly after starting his new role as Head of Corporate, the hire was internally recognized as one of the most successful executive recruitments the client bank had ever made, with measurable results delivered within a very short timeframe.

>Our Team

Banking Executive Search Specialists in the Western Balkans

This banking executive search was led by Stanton Chase Belgrade in partnership with our regional Financial Services practice. With a long-standing presence in the Western Balkans and an extensive network across the Southeastern European banking sector, our local team understands the realities of recruiting senior banking talent in Serbia, where the most obvious pools are often the smallest, and where shareholder relationships frequently close off entire talent populations.

For banking executive search across Serbia, Belgrade, and the wider Southeastern European market, our team has the on-the-ground knowledge to find Head of Corporate, Head of SME, and other senior banking leadership candidates that more conventional approaches miss.