ING is reinfocing its commitment to technology, stripping chief operations officer Roel Louwhoff of his reponsibility for driving transformation and elevating chief information officer Ron van Kemenade to CTO with a place on the executive board.
The shake-up will lead to the departure of Louwhoff, to whom van Kemenade previously reported, in August.
Says Louwhoff: “The separation of the operations and technology roles at board level is a natural step in the evolution of ING as a digital leader, which I fully support. For me, after seven years on the Board, it is also a natural moment to start looking for a change of scenery later this year..”
In his new role van Kemenade will remain responsible for technology globally, including infrastructure, applications and architecture. He will also remain responsible for data management and will assume control of information security.
An incoming chief operations officer will take charge of bankwide operations including KYC, the Global Transformation Office and ING Business Shared Services.
Steven van Rijswijk, CEO of ING says “Today’s announcement marks a next step in our journey to become a data-driven digital leader in banking. I am confident that Ron’s appointment as chief technology officer will serve as a catalyst for our further development."
The management reshuffle continues van Rijswijk's overhaul of the bank's technology leadership since replacing Ralph Hamer at the helm of the Dutch bank. In October last year, shortly after taking offfice, van Rijswijk combined all of its disparate innovation programmes into a single dedicated unit, a move which ultimately led to the departure of the Dutch bank's chief innovation officer and architect of fintech fund ING Ventures, Benoît Legrand