KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 7): Malayan Banking Bhd (KL:MAYBANK) has appointed its deputy group chief risk officer (CRO) Mohamed Rezwan Abdullah Ismail as new group CRO, effective Thursday.

Mohamed Rezwan, 48, succeeds Datuk Hamzah Bachee, who is retiring after serving for 36 years at the country’s biggest banking group, said Maybank in a statement. Hamzah was appointed as group CRO on July 1 last year.

Mohamed Rezwan has over 25 years of experience in the banking industry, including as financial conglomerates supervision director at Bank Negara Malaysia, chief risk and compliance officer at Lembaga Tabung Haji and CRO of Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd.

“He will be responsible to strategise, lead and implement a progressive enterprise-wide risk management framework that appropriately identifies, manages and mitigates risks to achieve the strategic and business objectives of Maybank Group,” said Maybank.

Maybank president and group chief executive officer Datuk Khairussaleh Ramli said Mohamed Rezwan’s appointment demonstrates the effectiveness of Maybank's internal succession planning and aligns with the bank's talent management policy to strengthen and intensify its internal capacity building.

“Rezwan’s diverse experience in the practice of risk management and compliance, coupled with his experience in managing regulatory requirements before, would enable him to contribute towards strengthening enterprise-wide risk management across our footprint, as well as supporting the growth aspirations of the group, particularly its M25+ strategy," Khairussaleh said.

Shares of Maybank closed four sen or 0.4% higher at RM10.14 on Wednesday, valuing the group at RM122.6 billion.