Papers: BCH to make Cañas chairman

Newly appointed director of Chilean bank Banco de Chile (NYSE: BCH), Fernando Cañas, is expected to be elected chairman of the board during the upcoming shareholders' meeting on March 17, local press reported. A BCH spokesperson could not confirm the local press reports, saying that, "the bank's entire board would be voted upon in the coming shareholders' meeting, but the bank has not announced that Cañas would take over as chairman." Banco de Chile's current chairman, Segismundo Schulin-Zeuthen, said in an interview with local daily El Mercurio, that he had decided to step down as chairman, but would remain on the board. Fernando Cañas was appointed director at Banco de Chile last week, after vacating his post at Spanish banking group Grupo Santander (NYSE: STD) as head of payments for the bank's Latin American division. Cañas is well known in Chile as well as internationally and his appointment is widely seen as a show of confidence in BCH, in light of investigations into money laundering and other illegal transactions at the bank's US branches in Miami and New York. Schulin-Zeuthen has been BCH's chairman for almost six years.