EVP – Sustainability and Transition — Transaction-Banking Franchise

The mandate

A listed bank has made transition commitments that remain detached from planning and capital allocation. Transaction-banking teams pursue deposit growth without a consistent view of client transition credibility, financed activity or the operational data required to substantiate claims. The next planning cycle is the point at which public ambition must become customer, product and investment decisions.

The EVP – Sustainability and Transition will influence approximately €70,050 million in loans and deposits and lead around 500 employees and material partners. Scope includes transition strategy, client pathways, sustainable products, portfolio measurement, data, disclosures, partnerships and delivery governance across the transaction-banking franchise. The reporting line sits with the Group Chief Executive or designated executive committee sponsor.

The executive will translate enterprise commitments into decision rules. Sector pathways need boundaries, milestones, client evidence and consequences when progress falls short. They should distinguish orderly transition from a label attached to ordinary business. Risk, finance and relationship leaders retain independent accountabilities, but will work from one set of definitions.

Deposit growth creates both opportunity and scrutiny. Operating balances can deepen relationships with clients investing in transition, yet promotional products or broad eligibility claims can create greenwashing exposure. Product criteria must connect use, customer behaviour, verification, pricing and exit. Treasury value and customer outcome should be visible alongside sustainability attributes.

Client engagement will be specific. Relationship teams need questions, evidence standards and escalation routes appropriate to each sector. The EVP will identify when advisory support can help a credible plan, when financing conditions are appropriate and when a relationship should not be presented as aligned. Engagement activity counts only if it changes a decision or documented trajectory.

Capital cases will include transition consequences from the outset. Investment in products, data or partnerships requires customer demand, delivery capacity, control readiness, cash timing and downside. Portfolio steering should reveal concentrations and dependency on uncertain assumptions. The executive will prevent distant targets from justifying current expenditure without near-term proof.

Measurement must be reproducible. Data lineage, estimation methods, coverage gaps and restatements need named owners. Where client data is unavailable, proxies should be transparent and time-limited. Disclosures must reconcile with the information used for pricing, risk and portfolio decisions rather than become a parallel reporting exercise.

Partnerships may supply specialist data, verification or client capability. Contracts need methodology transparency, rights to challenge, continuity, security and exit. The bank cannot outsource judgement or depend permanently on a vendor score whose changes it cannot explain to clients or supervisors.

The operating model will connect central expertise with business ownership. Sustainability specialists should frame standards and challenge; product and relationship executives must own customer and commercial consequences. Succession will build leaders able to discuss transition economics with boards, not only reporting specialists.

Why this seat is open

This urgent new seat replaces distributed ownership after the deposit-growth agenda exposed gaps between commitments and capital choices. Interim governance protects disclosures, but the board needs a permanent executive within six to eight weeks to shape the next planning cycle.

What you will own

• Convert transition commitments into sector pathways and capital decision rules.
• Influence allocation across €70,050 million of loans and deposits.
• Govern sustainable deposit propositions through customer and treasury economics.
• Establish credible client evidence, engagement and escalation standards.
• Build auditable portfolio measurement, data lineage and disclosure reconciliation.
• Lead approximately 500 employees and partners with clear business ownership.
• Select data and capability partners without outsourcing judgement.
• Give the board explicit progress, uncertainty and corrective choices.

The first 12 months

The first 90 days should reconcile commitments, portfolio measures and planning assumptions. Meet the 30 stakeholders most consequential to transition delivery, including clients, supervisors, treasury, risk, finance, product and data owners. Assess leadership and agree capital and evidence gates.

Months four to nine should embed priority sector pathways, repair product criteria and make data investment choices. Stop claims or initiatives that cannot clear evidence thresholds. Initial value may appear through stronger deposits, avoided spend, reduced disclosure risk or capital redirected to a credible client pathway.

By year end, transition economics, governance and auditable progress should be repeatable. Delivery must remain within 10% of approval and forecasts should reconcile customer, balances, cash and people for three quarters. Priority risks need independent closure evidence, and severe escalation cannot remain unresolved beyond 30 days.

What the board will measure

• Capital and product choices changed by documented transition evidence.
• Deposit growth attributable to credible, persistent customer relationships.
• Portfolio coverage, data quality, estimation and disclosure reconciliation.
• Client pathways with dated action, accountability and escalation.
• More than nine in ten critical leaders retained and ready cover across seven in ten direct roles.
• Partner methodologies understood, challenged and operationally replaceable.

The person

You are an EVP Sustainability, Transition Director or Strategy Leader with 18–22 years in banking or adjacent regulated finance. You have embedded transition commitments into commercial and capital governance and can identify a case where evidence changed an attractive client or product decision.

Your accountable P&L, book, budget or portfolio has been at least €40,650 million, and you have led 350 or more people. Outcomes from your intervention remained visible over two reporting periods.

You understand transaction banking, deposits, portfolio measurement and the limits of external data. You can explain uncertainty plainly, challenge both commercial optimism and methodological perfection, and maintain credibility with supervisors and clients.

Compensation and terms

Base compensation is €250,000–330,000 plus annual incentive. The permanent Frankfurt role is onsite, supports international relocation and accommodates notice up to six months.

Confidentiality

The client, portfolio and transition commitments remain unnamed until reciprocal interest is confirmed under confidentiality. Published circumstances are composite.