This follows current Group Chief Operating Officer, David Whiteing’s decision to leave the Bank and relocate back to Australia.

Louwhoff, who joined the Bank on 1 November 2021 as Group Chief Digital, Technology & Innovation Officer, has a strong track record in leading technology, innovation and operations in his previous roles and is well positioned to drive the Bank’s transformation to achieve greater alignment, efficiency, and client-focus.

Bill Winters, Group Chief Executive Officer, said: “With David’s departure, I have decided to combine our Operations and Technology teams to enable us to move faster, harness synergies, and accelerate the delivery of our strategy and transformation across the Bank. I have asked Roel to lead us in turbocharging this change, and we thank David for his leadership in establishing a strong foundation, from which we will now build.”

Louwhoff added: “I see massive opportunities for the Bank to transform as a client-focused, purpose-driven organisation, delivering a seamless end to end client experience and doing things more efficiently. Over the past few years, the Bank has created a strong change-oriented environment by embedding a culture of continuous improvement into our ways of working. By bringing Technology and Operations together, we are taking a further important step towards executional certainty of the Bank’s strategy.”