The Commonwealth Bank’s chief information officer David Whiteing will leave the bank in the coming months, CBA announced today.
In addition to Whiteing, HR chief Melanie Laing and CBA’s head of institutional banking and markets, Kelly Bayer Rosmarin will leave the bank in the coming months.
The changes come as the bank’s incoming CEO, Matt Comyn, prepares to assume his new role on 9 April.
The bank announced in January that Comyn, its retail banking services chief, would replace Ian Narev as CBA CEO.
The appointment of a new group CEO came as the bank faced the prospect of increased scrutiny from the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry as well as fallout from legal action launched by AUSTRAC.
AUSTRAC has alleged that the bank is guilty of “serious and systemic non-compliance” with Australia’s anti-money-laundering regime.
Whiteing’s high-profile predecessor, Michael Harte, left CBA in 2014. The bank announced Whiteing’s appointment to the top tech job in June 2014.
The CIO had originally joined the bank in late 2013 to lead its enterprise services architecture and planning team.
“Leadership transitions are inevitably a time of change in senior teams, as executives reassess their own plans, and the bank prepares for its future,” Narev said in a statement.
“Today we are announcing the departure of three high calibre executives who have contributed significantly to CBA.”
Comyn thanked the trio of departing execs for their service to the bank. The incoming CEO said that a search has begun for replacements as well as for a new executive to replace him as retail banking services group executive.
“As incoming CEO I am focused on building an executive leadership team that will work to exceed the expectations of our customers, the community and regulators; rebuild the trust and pride in our bank; and enhance the financial wellbeing of every customer we serve,” Comyn said.
Whiteing has overseen a number of high-profile forays into emerging technologies, including blockchain and quantum computing.
The CIO was an advocate of bank’s tech workforce embracing Agile-based approaches as well as emphasising the importance of partnering to augment CBA’s capabilities.