Commonwealth Bank names new CIO
Commonwealth Bank of Australia has appointed David Whiteing as the new chief information officer and group executive of enterprise services.
The appointment follows Michael Harte announcing his departure from the position last month to take up the role of chief operations and technology officer at Barclays Bank in London.
Commonwealth Bank CEO Ian Narev said Whiteing's appointment continues the group's track record of promoting internal candidates to executive roles.
"David is a highly experienced business and IT executive with a track record of delivering technology and process transformation in many industries, including financial services, both in Australia and overseas," he said.
Whiteing joined the company in September 2013 to lead the then-newly formed architecture and planning team in enterprise services. He will commence his new role on 14 July 2014.
Prior to joining CBA, Whiteing was vice president of enterprise services at BP in the United Kingdom, and is a former Accenture partner with SAP experience.
Narev also reinforced that technology and productivity continue to be long-term priorities for the group.
"David and his technology and operations teams will build on the group's extensive investments in technology to ensure on-going innovation for our customers, and continuing productivity, reliability and security," he said.
Since 2008, the bank has already spent in excess of AU$580 million in revamping its IT infrastructure, including delivering the bank's core banking modernisation project. The bank also introduced real-time settlement and banking, mobile banking app Kaching, and its point-of-sale platform Pi. CBA was also responsible for launching Australia's first cardless ATM cash withdrawal service.
The banking sector's list of CIO departures have recently been growing. The latest to announce their resignation was Suncorp Group's Jeff Smith who is leaving the company to take up a role with IBM. Also, NAB's Denis McGee left the company last August, and ANZ's Anne Weatherston announced her resignation in April.