- Current CFO will assume responsibilities as acting CEO until a new appointment is confirmed
- HBL board establishes post of chief operating officer
According to an internal memo circulated by the Habib Bank Limited (HBL) management, Nauman Dar will be retiring on December 31, 2017, from his designation of President and CEO of the bank.
The memo also stated that Rayomond Kotwal , who is currently the Chief Financial Officer for the organisation will be serving as the interim CEO until a formal appointment of the new CEO is made.
In addition, the memo also confirms the appointment of Syed Salim Raza as a director on the board of the HBL.
Raza is an accomplished banker who has held prestigious positions as a banker in Citibank N.A in Pakistan as well as abroad. As a former governor of the State Bank of Pakistan, Raza will bring with him extensive experience and knowledge of the banking industry as well as regulatory frameworks to the organisation.
Moreover, the memo also announced the appointment of Sagheer Mufti as the organisation’s chief operating officer (COO). It is of worth to mention here that this is a new designation that the HBL’s board had established. Mufti will be becoming a part of the HBL team with effect from January 8, 2018.
Mufti’s professional profile boasts 34 years of experience with the Citigroup, where he was assigned several country, regional and global level responsibilities in operations, technology and compliance. Sagheer’s most recent appointment was his appointment as the global head for anti-money laundering (AML) operations. Mufti is currently the COO for Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB)’s where he is managing the bank’s operations, risk compliance and control functions such as cybersecurity and business continuity.
Lastly, the memo also stated the appointment Nasir Salim as the head of global operations. He will be joining HBL on December 18.
Nasir bags over 30 years of experience with Citi. He has served Citibank in North America as site head for its servicing centre in Buffalo, New York to support Citi’s global operations and as site operations director for the organisation’s servicing centre in San Antonio, Texas supporting the North American retail business.
Nasir has also served as senior country operations manager for Citibank Pakistan.
In 2015, he had also served as ADIB in the capacity of EVP and head of retail operations. He has extensive experience in customer experience through re-engineering and digital initiatives.
The appointments in HBL come at a time when recently it had been slapped with an unprecedented $630m fine by New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS), over ‘grave compliance failures’ in non-implementation of anti-money laundering rules at its solitary branch in New York.
HBL then opted for an out of court settlement, which meant a much-reduced fine but expulsion from the United States territory.
As a consequence, on September 7, New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) announced that HBL New York branch had been fined $225 million for its failure to comply with laws and regulations designed to combat illicit money transactions.
