South Africa’s Standard Bank has promoted Duncan Wattam as chief financial officer of its private clients division.

Wattam succeeds Julian Davies, who has moved to the bank’s Brazil officer as chief operating officer for the Americas.

In his new role Wattam assumes responsibility for the finance functions of Standard Bank’s international private clients and South Africa private clients divisions and will be based in Jersey.

Wattam has been with Standard Bank since 2005, when he joined as part of the finance team. He later moved into the treasury and product team as the structured products manager and since 2007 has been business manager for the head of Standard Bank Private Clients, with his main focus being on strategy and corporate finance related activities.

“Duncan’s promotion to CFO is a natural progression for him as he has gained experience across the business and we are delighted with this very positive appointment,” Ian Gibson, head of Standard Bank Private Clients, said in a statement.

“With Duncan on board as CFO we are well-equipped to manage the ongoing expansion of our wealth business. In recent years we have developed our private client capability and with the group’s focus on emerging markets, we are predicting strong growth during 2010.”