Roman Regelman, BNY Mellon’s senior vice president and global head of securities services and digital, will leave the bank after more than six years.
His departure, set for April 15, was announced last week through a securities filing and via LinkedIn.
“Today we announced that I will be leaving BNY Mellon to pursue new career opportunities,” he wrote March 4. “I've had the honor and privilege of serving on BNY Mellon’s leadership team since 2018 — and while my time here has been one of the highlights of my career, it’s only 2.5% of the firm’s 240-year history advancing the future of finance."
As head of digital, Regelman directed the digital operations of the nation’s oldest bank, including data management, analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning and robotics. And as global head of securities services, he’s focused on the making securities services more data- and analytics-driven, according to his BNY profile.
CEO Robin Vince responded to Regelman’s LinkedIn post with a message of gratitude.
“Thanks for everything, Roman. Wishing you the very best in your next chapter,” he wrote.
A spokesperson didn’t return a request for further comment.
The filing does not identify a successor. It stands to reason, however, that the bank will identify someone before or soon after his departure date, given the outsize importance digital operations have had on the banking industry in recent years.
It was during his tenure that the bank debuted its digital asset custody platform, launched in response to a survey of institutional investors that found most (91%) were interested in tokenized products, and 41% of them held crypto.
The crypto world has since gone through massive changes and market volatility.
“We believe in the power of [tokenization],” he told American Banker last year, discussing digital assets. “We believe that innovation can offer new use cases and quicker and cheaper access to capital markets. But we don't think that's about crypto. Crypto is an example of digital assets, but to say that digital assets are a lot more than crypto is an understatement. It's a lot more.
“Our horizon is long-term in our belief that between our custody business, our clearing business, our repos, markets, the payments business, that's where we need to be. Across all of it,” he said.
Regelman did not provide further detail, in his LinkedIn post, on plans after BNY Mellon.
“This company has an incredible role at the center of the world’s financial system, helping to make money work for the world, and I am grateful for the opportunity to have led our Securities Services businesses and our Digital organization,” he said.
