Rob Harding will take up the role of interim chief financial officer on 9 March. He will become a member of the security printing group’s executive leadership team but will not be a director of the business.

De La Rue is experiencing a torrid period and has warned that it could breach its banking covenants. The PLC said Harding would bring “a wealth of finance and turnaround experience” to the business.

He has spent the past eight months at Co-Op Insurance as interim CFO working on the sale of the business.

Prior to that Harding spent six years at insurer Swinton Group, as CFO and then as director of strategy and corporate risk.

In a statement De La Rue CEO Clive Vacher, who has only been in post for four months himself, said: “We are delighted that Rob will be joining De La Rue. His depth of turnaround experience will be invaluable to us as we execute our plans and re-shape our business to meet both the short-term and long-term challenges we face as a company.”

Shares in De La Rue moved up slightly after the announcement, by 1.64% to 132.6p. (52-week high: 466p, low: 121p.)