Santander European structured solutions MD departs

Francois Peningault, managing director of structured products solutions at Santander GBM in London, has left the Spanish bank.

SRP understands Peningault will not be replaced and his responsibilities will be taken over by Mehdi Kadhim, head of structured products sales for Northern Europe, who reports locally to the head of Santander UK investment bank, Jacques Ripoll, and regionally to the bank’s head of institutional sales for Northern Europe, Jokin Cantera.

Peningault joined Santander in January 2011 to head a new team of senior structured products professionals dedicated to private banks and wealth managers in Europe comprised by Adrien Blavier, formerly at Barclays Capital; Francois-Xavier Desplanches, formerly at BNP Paribas; and Nick Cogswell. Peningault originally reported to Rodrigo de Sebastian, head of equity structured products Europe, and from March last year to Kadhim as the Spanish bank reorganised its sales teams to cover Northern Europe and Southern Europe.

Kadhim heads the Northern Europe sales while de Sebastian runs Southern Europe’s and Poland’s sales teams.

Peningault joined Santander from Société Générale where he was head of European private banking coverage between 2004 and 2010.

Prior to that, he was head of French-speaking Switzerland and senior sales France at Lehman Brothers for four years.

Santander declined to comment. Requests for comment from Peningault were not returned by press time.