(Bloomberg) -- Societe Generale SA investment bank head Slawomir Krupa is emerging as the lead candidate to replace outgoing Chief Executive Officer Frederic Oudea, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The nomination committee of the board of directors, which is meeting in Paris Friday, is said to favor Krupa over his rival Sebastien Proto, the person said, who asked not to be named as the discussions are private. The board has not made a final decision yet, the person said. Le Figaro reported the committee’s stance earlier.

The appointment comes at a pivotal time for the lender, which has seen a roller-coaster performance in recent years. The bank suffered steep losses at the onset of the pandemic, then rebounded from its first losing year in decades with a record profit. More recently, it took a large hit from the sale of its Russian business after the invasion of Ukraine.

Read More: SocGen’s Combative Trading Boss Takes On Establishment Rival

A 26-year veteran of the bank, Krupa joined SocGen’s internal auditing body after graduating from Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris, also known as Sciences Po. He climbed the echelons of the lender’s investment banking operations until becoming deputy head of global finance in 2012.

In 2016, Krupa was appointed CEO of Societe Generale Americas, a post he held during the lender’s remediation talks with the U.S. Department of Justice over Libor manipulation and the bribing of Libyan officials. He worked with the US Federal Reserve to improve SocGen’s compliance functions.

Krupa has headed SocGen’s investment banking operations since January 2021, where he initiated a shift away from trading, after its derivatives business nearly imploded in 2020. 

(Adds tout under third paragraph)

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.