ING Direct sources new IT chief from Europe

ING Direct has imported Italian CIO Juanjo Cebrián to Australia to head up its local IT operations.

Juanjo Cebrián.

Cebrián becomes the most senior dedicated IT executive at ING Australia, answering to chief operating officer Simon Andrews, who joined the company in October.

ING phased out a direct CIO role following last year's departure of its previous CIO Andrew Henderson - bringing IT under the remit of the COO as an interim measure.

The head of IT role is newly created and establishes a position dedicated to the day-to-day running of IT as well as future strategy, a spokesperson said. However Andrews, who has extensive IT experience himself, will still represent IT on the company's executive council.

In a statement, ING Direct said it hoped to draw upon Cebrián’s global experience to cross-pollinate best practice back into Australia.

He served as Italian CIO for nine months, and has built up 18 years’ experience in banking IT across Spain, France, Japan and the Netherlands.

ING Direct is currently working through the process of streamlining its core IT infrastructure under the umbrella of what it calls the ‘Zero Touch IT project’.

Andrew Henderson was a finalist for iTnews’ Banking CIO of the Year in 2013, for his ‘Bank in a Box’ innovation, which allowed the ING team to duplicate its production banking system cheaply and easily for the purpose of testing and remediation.