ING has appointed Steve Van Wyk head of operations and IT banking. He takes over the position from Erik Dralans, who has served since 2000 and who has recently been appointed CEO of ING Belgium.
Van Wyk was formerly the CIO of Insurance Americas. He will report to Eli Leenaars, member of the Executive Board of ING Group and responsible for Retail Banking and Operations and IT Banking.
"Steve Van Wyk is an outstanding executive with a distinguished track record of leading and building world-class IT operations for complex organisations. He will serve as a key leader in enhancing the effectiveness of our IT operations and in helping to drive ING's continued growth", said Leenaars.
Prior to joining ING, Van Wyk worked at global financial services firm Morgan Stanley in New York. During his 10-year career there, he served in a variety of IT management positions.
In his new role at ING, one of Van Wyk's responsibilities will be overseeing the infrastructure work required as a result of ING Group's recent decision to merge its Postbank and ING Bank retail operations in the Netherlands. The new bank combination will operate under the ING brand as of 2009, and follow the business model of Postbank. Finextra understands that after evaluation it was decided that Postbank had the most effective IT infrastructure of the two banks, and ING Bank will be migrated on to it over the next year.