Dutch multinational bank ING announced last week that it will appoint Ljiljana Čortan Chief Risk Officer with effect January 1, 2021. She will succeed Steven van Rijswijk, who was appointed CEO in July this year. The appointment has been approved by the European Central Bank.

Čortan has spent 25 years in the banking and financial services industry, most of that with UniCredit Bank. Her most recent position was Chief Risk Officer of HypoVereinsbank—UniCredit Bank in Germany. She has also held leadership positions with UniCredit in Milan and Austria.

In her new role, which will be based in the Netherlands, Čortan will most likely be working to mitigate risks associated with technology, as well as COVID-19's impact on the financial system. In an ING interview on her appointment, she predicted that data, cyber security and evolving financial economic crime are the most threatening risks to organizations like ING.

"Being a front runner in banking transformation, we must apply advanced digital and data-driven technologies, striving to be the leader in protecting the financial system and the societies in which we operate from the increasing threats of non-financial risks," she said. "My stance towards those risks goes beyond the regulatory minimum, we must aspire to not just be a good corporate citizen, but the best!"

ING has pursued an ambitious digital transformation strategy for some years now—several years back, then-CEO Ralph Hamers announced that the bank would be investing EUR800 million in digital transformation initiatives between 2016 and 2021, a plan that has yielded somewhat erratic results in the intervening years but that the bank is sticking firmly to, according to new CEO van Rijswijk.