Daniel Bley, Webster Bank’s chief risk officer, will retire after 14 years with the lender, the company said last week.
Bley will continue in the CRO role until Webster finds a replacement, after which he will move to an advisory role to ensure a smooth transition, Webster said.
“Dan has been instrumental in driving a strong risk culture at Webster and significantly advancing the risk management programs and capabilities across the company, in support of the bank’s substantial growth,” John Ciulla, the bank’s CEO, said in a statement last week.
Stamford, Connecticut-based Webster has appointed management consulting firm Russell Reynolds to conduct the search, who will do so in conjunction with Webster, a spokesperson for the lender said via email.
The search involves internal and external candidates and does not have a set timeframe, the spokesperson added.
Bley manages the bank’s enterprise risk functions, including operating, compliance and regulatory risk. He also oversees Bank Secrecy Act/anti-money laundering and fraud programs at the bank.
“It has been my privilege to work with the Webster Board and executive management team that has always been committed to ensuring a strong risk culture at the bank and investing in risk management personnel, processes and technology necessary to support our growth,” Bley said.
Before coming to Webster in 2010, Bley served in credit-risk positions at Royal Bank of Scotland for two years and ABN Amro for 18, according to LinkedIn and a bio on Webster’s website.
As Webster nears the $100 billion-asset threshold that would make the lender a Category IV bank, it is stepping up its hiring efforts and bolstering its cybersecurity infrastructure, Vikram Nafde, the bank’s chief information officer, told Banking Dive last month.
Webster has plans to strengthen its risk framework and controls, Nafde said. The bank, which has around 4,300 employees, plans to hire about 200 people this year – out of which, about 25 will hold technology and cybersecurity roles on the IT team.
Webster is also investing to boost its risk and compliance infrastructure and is preparing for higher capital and liquidity requirements and more frequent regulatory reporting.
Ciulla has indicated the lender is building technology, risk and data infrastructure that would also enable it to execute a whole-bank acquisition in the next one to three years if regulatory conditions become more favorable.
“What we have to do for that is a series of things in the space of data, cybersecurity, but also digital and the regulatory reporting,” Nafde said last month. “There’s a big component of technology … as we get closer and closer to the $100 billion mark.”
