CBA's finance chief exits to join EOS cryptocurrency

Commonwealth Bank CFO Rob Jesudason has left the bank to take an executive role at the company behind the cryptocurrency EOS, which is the fifth largest coin globally.

CBA said in a statement that Jesudason had resigned “to pursue an external role in Hong Kong” and would be “leaving with immediate effect”.

An hour later, it emerged that Jesudason would assume the role of group president and chief operating officer of Block.one, seller of the EOS token and publisher of blockchain software called EOSIO.

Block.one said in a statement of its own that Jesudason would take up the role “later this year following his notice period”.

Jesudason was quoted as saying that “the market’s strong response to Block.one’s approach has resulted in it being one of the fastest growing organisations in the world, and this will inform our operational growth strategies going forward”.

The EOS coin has seen solid performance in recent months. Block.one is said to have raised some US$700 million in the initial coin offering (ICO) of the EOS token.

Jesudason has been at CBA for six-and-a-half years, and previously worked for a plethora of large finance companies including IFS, Credit Suisse, JPMorgan, Barclays, GE Capital and McKinsey.

CBA named Alan Docherty as its acting CFO.

Docherty has been the chief financial officer for CBA’s Institutional Banking and Markets business. He joined the bank in 2003.

CBA’s CEO Matt Comyn said the bank would search both internally and externally for a permanent replacement.

He also said that CBA is “making good progress with the renewal of the bank’s executive team and I expect to provide an update on appointments to my leadership team in the coming weeks”.

CBA has been beset by scandal for much of 2018 due to enormously damaging admissions at the banking royal commission and the fallout from an ongoing fraud case filed by Austrac.

The bank has also suffered a string of technical faults in recent months that have caused customers problems.