People: McDermott leaving UK regulator

Woods is new PRA chief; Deutsche hires Root and Hazlewood; Santander's Hassani promoted

Tracey McDermott will leave the UK's FCA in July

Tracey McDermott, acting chief executive of the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), has announced she will be leaving the agency in July.

McDermott previously worked as a solicitor, specialising in commercial litigation, before joining the FCA's predecessor, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), in 2001. She served in roles including director of supervision and authorisations, and director of enforcement and financial crime, before becoming acting chief executive with the unexpected departure of Martin Wheatley, former FCA chief executive, in September last year.

Although McDermott had been considered a candidate to take over the top job, it was revealed in January that she had withdrawn from the process of appointing a new chief executive. Later that month, the UK government announced that Andrew Bailey, chief executive of the Bank of England (BoE) Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), had been chosen for the role.

Sam Woods

At the PRA, Sam Woods has been appointed to replace Bailey as chief executive. Woods will begin a renewable term of five years from July, when Bailey moves to the FCA.

Currently, Woods is executive director of insurance at the BoE, where he is responsible for supervising more than 600 general and life insurance firms. Previously, he worked at the UK Treasury for 10 years, before joining the FSA in 2011, and moving to the BoE in 2013. Earlier, Woods served as director for financial stability strategy and risk, as well as director for domestic UK banks supervision.

 

Deutsche Bank has appointed Pamela Root and Peter Hazlewood to senior compliance and anti-financial crime roles.

Specifically, Root will become the German bank's global head of compliance and group chief compliance officer, while Hazlewood has been appointed as global head of anti-financial crime and group money-laundering reporting officer.

Root joins Deutsche on June 6 from Citi, where she has been chief compliance officer for the institutional clients group since 2009. Before that, she held various legal and compliance roles at Goldman Sachs. In her new position, Root will be based in London and replace Nadine Faruque, who left the bank in March.

Meanwhile, Hazlewood begins his new role in July. Most recently, he was global head of anti-money laundering compliance at HSBC. Prior to that, he held a variety of anti-financial crime positions at rival banks, such as JP Morgan and Standard Chartered. At Deutsche, Hazlewood will replace Ulrich Göres, who left the bank in January.

Both Root and Hazlewood will report to Sylvie Matherat, Deutsche Bank's chief regulatory officer, in Frankfurt.

 

Bertrand Hassani

Bertrand Hassani, group head of advanced and alternative analytics at Santander, has been promoted to the newly created role of global head of research and innovation.

Previously, Hassani and his team worked on areas such as operational risk modelling, risk appetite control and non-financial risk. In his new position, he will set up a new department at the bank's headquarters in Madrid, focusing on a broader range of areas, including credit risk, market risk, liquidity risk and anti-money laundering.

Hassani, who has held a variety of risk-related roles at Santander, previously worked at London-based insurance and risk management firm Aon and French bank BPCE. In March, he was one of five industry practitioners to condemn proposals by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision to remove the advanced modelling approach in an article for Risk.net.

In his new role, Hassani will report to Jaime Caraza, Santander's Madrid-based global head of risk methodology. He will continue to manage his former team in London until a replacement is found.

 

Colin Bell, former head of compliance and operational risk control at UBS, is leaving the bank for HSBC.

At HSBC, Bell will take on the role of group head of global standards execution and remediation, focusing on financial crime. He will remain in London and report to group chief executive Stuart Gulliver.

Bell has held his current position at UBS since 2014. He was previously global head of operational risk control, having rejoined the bank in 2010, following a brief stint at Barclays Wealth.

James Oates, former head of group internal audit, has replaced Bell at UBS. A spokesperson says Bell has no firm departure date and will work with Oates to ensure a smooth transition.

CYBG, the UK-based holding company of Clydesdale Bank and Yorkshire Bank, has appointed Mark Thundercliffe as its new chief risk officer (CRO).

Thundercliffe joins from HSBC, where he served as CRO for the bank's European retail banking and wealth management business. He previously held several senior roles in financial services, including president and chief executive for Asia at Home Credit, executive director and business head of Russia at investment bank Renaissance Capital, and business head of Russia at Citi.

As Thundercliffe's move is subject to regulatory approval, he has no firm starting date. Upon joining CYBG, he will replace acting CRO Derek Treanor and be based in Yorkshire.

 

Andreas Kull

Bermuda-based Tokio Millennium Re (TMR), the reinsurance branch of Japanese insurer Tokio Marine, appointed Andreas Kull as chief risk officer (CRO) on April 1.

Kull is a qualified actuary with more than 15 years' experience in risk management and modelling. He joined TMR in April last year, leaving his position as CRO at Axa Winterthur, a unit of Paris-based insurer Axa. As part of his new role, he has joined TMR's executive committee.

Kull replaces Akira Higuma, who has been appointed as leader of global risk management at parent company Tokio Marine Holdings in Japan.

 

Marshall Sprung, co-chief of the asset management unit in the division of enforcement at the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), is leaving the agency at the end of April.

As co-chief, a role he has held since 2013, Sprung oversees investigations of investment advisers for misconduct. He joined the SEC as a staff attorney in 2003, after working as a litigation associate at law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Los Angeles, and as a law clerk at the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

The SEC is looking for a replacement for Sprung. In the meantime, the asset management unit will be led by co-chief Anthony Kelly.

 

Celeste Koeleveld has been appointed general counsel at the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS).

Koeleveld has been a government lawyer for 25 years, most recently serving as an executive assistant corporation counsel in the New York City Law Department since 2008.

Previously, she worked at the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, where she held several supervisory posts, including chief of the criminal division. In that role, she led more than 160 assistant attorneys assigned to nine different units, including securities fraud, public corruption, terrorism, organised crime and narcotics trafficking.

At the DFS, she is based in New York and reports to superintendent Benjamin Lawsky.