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Commonwealth Bank exec reshuffle sees deck have less tech

The bank's former CIO of retail banking and business banking division Adam Bennett will move on to "pursue the next phase of his career" at the end of January 2020.
Written by Aimee Chanthadavong, Contributor

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has announced the departure of the bank's Business and Private Banking group executive Adam Bennett.

According to the bank's CEO Matt Comyn, Bennett will officially finish up at the end of January 2020 to "pursue the next phase of his career".

"Adam is a highly respected leader whose banking and technology expertise has helped deliver many innovative digital solutions for our customers, including the Bank's first generation mobile banking app, our market-leading NetBank and CommBiz digital platforms, and BizExpress, our new simplified business lending proposition," he said.

Bennett was appointed to the executive team back in 2014 by then-CEO Ian Narev to help the bank improve and grow its business and private banking unit.

Bennett initially joined the bank as part of the group technology unit in 2004, and was the chief information officer for the retail banking and business banking divisions during the core modernisation project. Bennett then went on to join the private banking leadership team in 2009, and became the executive general manager of the local banking business in 2012.

At the time, Narev said Bennett's experience in technology was going to help build on the Commonwealth Bank's investment in technology.

See also: Leaders tout tech's role in HR and the need for corporate purpose at Work Awesome conference (TechRepublic)

On Wednesday, Comyn also announced Mike Vacy-Lyle will be Bennett's replacement. Vacy-Lyle is currently serving as the CEO of FNB Commercial Banking, a division of FirstRand Banking Group in South Africa, and has held other roles in commercial banking, including finance, pricing, product, capital management, and sales.

"He has a proven track record in delivering customer solutions across all business bank lending, agribusiness and corporate financial services, as well as meeting the needs of private banking clients. I am delighted that Mike is joining the executive leadership team," he said.

Last month, the bank said it is committed to spend AU$5 billion on technology in the next five years to improve its systems and services.

Comyn said at the time that being "best in digital" would continue to be a key part of company's strategy.

"With 7 million active digital customers and 7.4 million logons per day, we're doing all we can to make banking more personalised and more convenient," he said.

He also said, just last week while facing the House Standing Committee Economics, that the bank is "extremely focused" on making sure that there is very little innovation for fintechs to bring to the market that CBA hasn't already brought forward.   

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