People: Rabobank appoints chief risk officer

Krawcheck joins Digital Asset board; SEC creates Office of Risk and Strategy; Yoss becomes CRO of Mizuho Bank Americas

Petra van Hoeken joins the Dutch bank from rival NIBC, where she was also CRO

Rabobank has appointed Petra van Hoeken as chief risk officer (CRO).

Van Hoeken joins the Dutch bank from domestic rival NIBC, where she was also CRO. Prior to joining NIBC in 2011, she served as CRO for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Royal Bank of Scotland, with a focus on credit, market, operational and regulatory risk, and compliance. Before that, she held several commercial and risk roles at ABN Amro.

Based in Utrecht at Rabobank, van Hoeken reports to the supervisory board, chaired by president-commissioner Wout Dekker.

Her arrival fills one of two vacancies created by the departure of former chief financial and risk officer Bert Bruggink, who stepped down in January after Dutch banking regulators demanded his dual role be split.

Bruggink remains with Rabobank as a senior adviser to the board, while his former role of chief financial officer was filled in January by Bas Brouwers, who previously held the same position at ING Netherlands. The role of CRO has since been held on an interim basis by Wiebe Draijer, chairman of Rabobank's executive board.

NIBC says it has yet to appoint a replacement for van Hoeken.

 

Sallie Krawcheck, former chief executive of Bank of America's wealth management business, has joined the board of Digital Asset, the New York-based crypto-currency start-up led by former JP Morgan executive Blythe Masters.

In her new role as a director, Krawcheck joins several other high-profile financial executives on the board of Digital Asset, including Masters.

Krawcheck is currently the New York-based chief executive of Ellevest, a digital investment platform for women, and chair of the Ellevate Network, a professional network for high-achieving women. Until 2011, she served as chair and chief executive of Bank of America wealth management, with responsibility for its Merrill Lynch and US Trust units. Previously, she worked at Citi, where her positions included chief executive of Citi global wealth management and chief financial officer.

Digital Asset provides secure settlement and ledger technology, designed to streamline business processes for financial institutions. Since its formation in 2014, the company has raised more than $60 million from corporate and private investors. In January, Digital Asset was selected by the Australian Stock Exchange, which is upgrading its main trading and post-trade platforms, to work on a distributed ledger solution in its equity market.

 

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is to create an Office of Risk and Strategy, the agency announced on March 8.

The new office will sit inside the Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) and is meant to "consolidate and streamline OCIE's risk assessment, market surveillance and quantitative analysis teams, and provide operational risk management and organisational strategy", according to the SEC.

Peter Driscoll, who has served as managing executive of OCIE since 2013, has been appointed to the newly created role of chief risk and strategy officer. He began his career as an auditor with Ernst & Young and has worked at the SEC since 2001. In his new role, he will manage both the new office and the SEC's Washington DC-based investment adviser/investment company examination staff.

Meanwhile, Robert Fisher has replaced Driscoll as managing executive of the OCIE. After having worked as a lawyer, Fisher first joined the SEC in 2002 as an economic fellow in the Office of Economic Analysis. Most recently, he served as associate director of the OCIE.

As managing executive, Fisher will oversee the OCIE's business operations, technology services and examiner training, as well as its tips, complaints and referral programmes. He will continue to be based in Washington, DC.

 

Mizuho Bank Americas, a subsidiary of Japanese bank Mizuho, has appointed Eric Yoss (pictured) to the newly-created position of chief risk officer (CRO).

Yoss joins from Barclays, where he was head of risk for the Americas region and CRO of Barclays Capital in the US. Previously, he held senior risk management roles at Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan.

In his new role, Yoss will be based in New York and report jointly to Hiroshi Suehiro, senior managing executive and head of Americas at Mizuho Bank, and Ryusuke Aya, CRO of Mizuho Financial Group. Yoss will also serve on the firm's US risk committee and Americas management committee.

Nomura has named Tetsu Ozaki, chief executive of the Japanese bank's wholesale division, as its new group chief operating officer (COO) - one of a series of changes recently made to senior management by Tokyo-based chief executive Koji Nagai.

Ozaki first joined Nomura in 1982. Since 2014, he has led the company's investment banking and market operations as chief executive of the wholesale division and deputy president of Nomura Securities.

As group COO, he will replace Atsushi Yoshikawa, who had served as group COO since 2012, when Nagai originally became chief executive. Yoshikawa left the position to become a senior adviser to Nomura Securities in Japan.

Ozaki will start his new job on April 1, based in Tokyo, but also retain his position as deputy president of Nomura Securities. His former role as chief executive of the wholesale division will be divided between Japan-based head of investment banking Kentaro Okuda and Steven Ashley, London-based head of global markets.

Insurance broker Marsh, a unit of New York-based Marsh & McLennan Companies, has appointed Iain Lobban to the newly-created role of senior adviser on cyber risk.

Lobban joined GCHQ, the UK intelligence and security agency that undertakes electronic surveillance, in 1983. He rose to the role of director-general of operations in 2004 and was appointed director four years later.

Cyber security was a major focus of Lobban's tenure as GCHQ's director, which lasted until 2014. In April last year, he was hired to set up a committee to advise the board of Standard Chartered on financial crime, a part-time role he continues to hold.

In his new role at Marsh, Lobban will provide strategic advice on handling the threat of cyber attacks. Based in London, he will report to Mark Weil, chief executive of Marsh in the UK and Ireland.

Paul Compton, former chief administrative officer of JP Morgan, has been hired by Barclays as chief operating officer (COO).

The move comes after Jes Staley, a 30-year JP Morgan veteran, took over as chief executive of Barclays in December 2015. CS Venkatakrishnan, also formerly of JP Morgan, was hired by Barclays as chief risk officer in January.

Compton is set to replace Jonathan Moulds. Having previously worked at Bank of America Merrill Lynch for 15 years, Moulds only served as COO since February 2015. He is leaving Barclays to pursue other opportunities, the bank said.

Compton and Venkatakrishnan will join Barclays in May and sit on its executive committee, reporting directly to Staley. JP Morgan declined to comment on their replacements.

In a separate move, Tom King retired as chief executive of Barclays' investment bank on March 4. King, who previously worked for Citi, joined Barclays in 2009 as head of banking for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and also served as co-head of global corporate finance. Barclays declined to comment on a replacement for him.

 

Rich Ricci (pictured), former chief executive of corporate and investment banking at Barclays, has joined London-based peer-to-peer currency trading platform Freemarket as chairman.

He will provide strategic oversight to Freemarket, according to a statement by Alex Hunn, the firm's founder and chief executive.

Ricci left Barclays in 2013, in the last of a wave of departures following the Libor scandal. He had worked at the bank since 1994, first coming to prominence as chief operating officer of Barclays Global Investors, the investment business sold to US asset manager BlackRock in 2009. He also held the role of chief operating officer of investment banking and investment management.