Reserve Bank appoints CIO

The Reserve Bank of Australia has ended its three-month search for a new chief information officer, appointing former Westpac chief technology officer Sarv Girn to the post.

Girn left Westpac in January and has since served as an executive consultant to Qantas chief information officer Paul Jones as the airline built out its sourcing and vendor management capabilities.

He will join the Reserve Bank on September 3, assuming responsibility for "strategic leadership in transforming and developing ... core IT functions" to support its policy, operational and corporate objectives, the Bank stated.

The Reserve Bank has sought a chief information officer since May, when it advertised for an experienced leader with the ability to "maintain effective relationships with the Bank's senior management, IT vendors and senior industry participants".

The Bank did not disclose how Girn's appointment would affect the structure of its IT department. Its systems and technology department was most recently led by Michael Hogan.

The Reserve Bank is headquartered in the Sydney CBD with a five-year-old disaster recovery site in Bella Vista. 

It is in the process of establishing a formal outage reporting regime to allow it to more closely monitor any banking technology glitches affecting the Australian payments system.

Girn has spent 25 years in technology positions within British, Australian and Asian financial services organisations, including three years at Westpac and seven years at the Commonwealth Bank.