ME Bank appoints chief risk officer

ME Bank has announced the appointment of Medibank Private’s Xavier Saldoni as its new chief risk officer (CRO).

Mr Saldoni previously held the role of CRO at Medibank Private since 2017.

Prior to Medibank, he was general manager, governance, risk and compliance for Devondale Murray Goulburn.

Mr Saldoni spent over 15 years with KPMG providing governance, risk, assurance and process optimisation services to large, complex organisations across Europe, USA, and Australia.

ME Bank’s previous CRO, Carlo Cataldo, left the bank in January after almost six years in the role, an ME Bank spokesperson told Mortgage Business.

Ken Barnes was appointed interim CRO in February while the bank conducted an executive search for a permanent replacement. Mr Barnes has worked in banking for over 35 years, and previously held several roles at NAB for many years.

ME Bank acting CEO Adam Crane welcomed Xavier to the role.

“Xavier’s strong track record as a leader and his diverse background across risk management and process improvement will be of significant value to ME at this point in our journey."

ME Bank recently appointed Mr Crane as acting CEO after its former CEO Jamie McPhee resigned after nearly 10 years in the role.

Mr McPhee was criticised earlier this year after the bank reduced the amount borrowers could redraw from specific legacy mortgage products without forewarning customers.

The policy decision received criticism from brokers, customers, and the broader community.

Shortly after, ME Bank announced that it had decided to change back home loan redraw limits for any customers wishing to opt out.

Mr McPhee was then called before the House of Representatives standing committee on economics for “an urgent public hearing” into the matter.

Mr McPhee said he believed the bank had made the right call, while acknowledging that the decision was “poorly communicated”.

[Related: ME Bank CEO stands by redraw decision]

Malavika Santhebennur is the features editor on the mortgages titles at Momentum Media.

Before joining the team in 2019, Malavika held roles with Money Management and Benchmark Media. She has been writing about financial services for the past six years.