Chemical Banking Corp. has appointed Yawar Shah general manager of its global treasury management services.
Global treasury management is a new unit within Geoserve, the bank's fee-based services subsidiary.
Mr. Shah, a senior vice president, had been Geoserve's chief administration officer until May, when group executive Richard J. Matteis replaced him with Diane Varrin Eshleman, also a senior vice president.
Described by peers as an "ideas man," Mr. Shah will continue to perform strategic evaluations of business structure and profitability.
The new unit, known as GTMS, is a combination of the treasury services and cash management divisions. Since May, Mr. Shah has overseen several organizational changes within these business units that he claims will help the bank renew its focus on its customers.
"We've organized GTMS with a strong market orientation and customer focus that we believe will set us apart from our competitors," Mr. Shah said.
Such pronouncements by bankers are usually taken with a grain of salt, since, as Mr. Shah readily acknowledged, "a lot of people say they are focused on the customer."
But he added, "Chemical will in fact do it. My charge is to take this company and build the franchise."
The new management structure "redefines the way treasury operations do business," he said.
Mr. Shah detailed the new treasury services management structure, which clusters products and services for various business categories, and which deemphasizes the "product view."
Under the new structure, product managers will no longer be concerned with selling only their primary products or services, such as lockbox, automated clearing house services, or corporate trust services.
Instead, managers are now "oriented toward selling a whole range of services," that provide customers with "business solutions."
He said such simple yet critical adjustments in the business philosophy provide the necessary "changes of culture" that breed success.
During his tenure as Geoserve's chief administrator, Mr. Shah consolidated several distinct business lines to reflect the way customers purchased the bank's products and services.
Geoserve began as a unit of Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co. in 1989. Chemical bought Manufacturers Hanover Corp. two years later.
The Geoserve unit provides global securities, corporate trust, and cash management services to virtually all Fortune 1000 corporations and approximately 60% of the New York region's middle market companies. Geoserve, which employs over 4,500 people, earned $750 million in revenue last year.
In addition to his responsibilities with Chemical, Mr. Shah is a member of the New York Clearing House Steering Committee, and is on the board of trustees of the U.S. Council for International Business. More recently, he was elected as a member of the board of directors of the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Transactions.
Mr. Matteis, who heads Geoserve, said he has put Mr. Shah in several areas because he has the "rare combination of business, technical, and people skills required to manage a big business."
