The board of Ecobank decided on Tuesday to remove chief executive Thierry Tanoh following months of turmoil over leadership of one of the biggest financial institutions in sub-Saharan Africa, bank sources said.

Two senior bank sources said that Tanoh had been removed during a board meeting in the Cameroon capital Yaounde but gave no further details. The sources declined to be named.

The vote came at the first board meeting since a majority of its 12 members called for Tanoh’s resignation.

A spokesman for Ecobank said he could not comment.

Tanoh, a citizen of Ivory Coast, took up the reins as CEO in January 2013, having previously been a vice president at the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC).

The row over corporate governance and leadership at Ecobank is seen a test case for regulators and has put a spotlight on the integrity of financial institutions on a continent whose economies are expanding rapidly.

The board meeting will likely also decide whether to reinstate former finance director Laurence do Rego, who was fired in January in a dispute over her professional qualifications.

Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has said she must be reinstated, a move the bank says would be illegal under the law of Togo, where Ecobank is based.

Source: Reuters (by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)