Dive Brief:
- Wells Fargo has named BNY’s former chief information officer, Bridget Engle, as its head of technology, effective Aug. 12, the San Francisco-based lender said Tuesday in a release.
- Wells also named Tracy Kerrins — previously the bank’s head of technology — as head of consumer technology, according to the release. In that role, Kerrins will lead a new generative AI team and work to drive the adoption of the technology across the bank. She’ll report to Engle.
- Engle, as of last month, had been set to step down as CIO of BNY in September, after transferring her responsibilities to Leigh-Ann Russell, the BP exec the New York City-based bank tapped to take on a combined CIO/engineering chief role.
Dive Insight:
In transitioning Kerrins to a role focused on AI, Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf emphasized the importance of the technology.
“Generative AI can help us transform our businesses, improve our customer and client experiences, and enhance the way we work,” Scharf said in Tuesday’s release. “Our new generative AI team will work closely with our data and technology platform management teams, as well as each business, on identifying and delivering on the potential of Generative AI responsibly.”
Scharf is not the only big-bank CEO to wax poetic this year on AI’s potential. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, in his annual shareholder letter in April, said AI could be as transformational as the printing press, adding that his bank is exploring genAI’s potential impact in software engineering, customer service and operations, “as well as in general employee productivity.”
“Over time, we anticipate that our use of AI has the potential to augment virtually every job, as well as impact our workforce composition,” Dimon wrote. “It may reduce certain job categories or roles, but it may create others as well.”
JPMorgan saw fit to elevate its newly minted chief data and analytics officer role to the operating committee. Dimon said the move “reflects … how seriously we expect AI to influence our business.”
“This will embed data and analytics into our decision making at every level of the company,” Dimon wrote in April.
Likewise, Wells is placing Engle on its operating committee.
“Bridget is a proven technology leader with deep experience leading large-scale technology transformations across multiple global financial institutions,” Scharf said Tuesday. “We have made great progress under Tracy’s leadership, and Bridget’s experience will be invaluable as we continue to modernize our platforms and invest in, scale, and increase innovation across the company.”
Engle’s move to Wells makes her again a direct report to Scharf, who served as BNY’s CEO until 2019. Engle joined BNY in 2017 from Bank of America, where she served as CIO of the Charlotte, North Carolina-based lender’s consumer bank and, later, CIO of global banking and markets.
Earlier in her career, she spent 17 years at Lehman Brothers, and was that bank’s CIO In 2008. She also served brief stints with Barclays and the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp., according to her LinkedIn profile.
“I am excited to be joining Wells Fargo at this important time in the company’s transformation,” Engle said. “I look forward to working with the team to continue to deliver modernized platforms and drive innovation across the company for our customers and employees.”
