Metals guru takes leave as Standard Bank struggles with losses

Standard Bank's charismatic co-head of commodities Jim Coupland is on temporary leave for personal reasons and his counterpart Mark Buncombe is to take over day-to-day operations of one of the world's top metals banks.

A bank representative did not specify a date for the return of Coupland, 57, who started Standard's base metals futures trading business two decades ago and made it one of the first Western banks to break into China.

Coupland goes on leave at a challenging time for Standard Bank as it seeks to recoup millions of dollars in losses from a metal financing scandal in China's Qingdao port that rocked markets last year.

Standard Bank's exposure to the purported fraud was about US$170 million worth of aluminium, but the co-chief executive has said it was too early to tell whether or not further write- downs were needed. The bank is a subsidiary of Standard Bank Group, Africa's largest lender.

While Coupland is on leave, Buncombe has taken over day-to-day operations in London.

Although the men have been joint heads since January 2013, Coupland's absence comes at a critical time for the bank with China's Industrial and Commercial Bank of China preparing to buy a 60 per cent stake in the business and as tighter regulation, intense competition and higher exchange fees roil trading.