CIO leaves Co-operative Bank

CIO of the Co-operative Bank, Peter Coleman, is leaving the company at the end of the month.

Coleman had been in his role since April 2013 and at the Co-operative Group since March 2012, and as CIO he was heavily involved in last year’s “Liability Management Exercise” – the rescue plan that recapitalised the bank to address its capital shortfall of around £1.5 billion by selling 70% of it to hedge funds.

Coleman noted in his 2014 CIO 100 questionnaire that he “built a fundamentally new IT strategy supporting the transformation of the bank to a simpler, customer-focused business combining incremental change, simplified architecture, and direction towards a new platform for the future”.

He said that this took out 12.5% of cost in six months, while helping shape a new digital approach.

A spokesperson from the bank confirmed the departure and said that an announcement would be made in due course.

In November the bank announced a £500 million IT investment to enable its ‘digital transformation’ as part of the recapitalisation plan, a move which came shortly after the appointment of former HP senior vice president Bill Thomas to the board. Coleman told us in his CIO entry that his reporting line was into the COO rather Co-operative Group CIO Andy Haywood, and that he did not have a seat on the board.

Before joining the Co-op Coleman was head of IT at Nationwide for almost three years, and previously he was head of IT at HBOS for eight years.

Co-op Bank had been due to publish its results yesterday, the figures having been postponed from March 26. But the bank said at the start of the week that it will now publish its accounts no later than April 11.