Mark Ashton-Rigby, the chief information officer of J.P. Morgan’s corporate and investment bank, has departed just months after a promotion.
Ashton-Rigby left the bank today, according to sources close to the situation, after just over three years at the bank. He joined from UBS in 2013, initially as head of banking technology, but was promoted to the CIO of its investment bank in September last year.
However, staff were informed of his departure in a memo sent today by Sanoke Viswanathan, chief administrative officer for J.P. Morgan’s corporate and investment bank. Viswanathan will be taking on Ashton-Rigby’s responsibilities until a full-time replacement is found.
Ashton-Rigby will be moving to “another role outside of the firm” and it’s believed that J.P. Morgan is keen to find a replacement swiftly for such a critical function.
He spent less than a year leading technology at UBS’s investment bank in London before moving to J.P. Morgan’s New York office in 2013. Before this, he worked in various technology roles at Deutsche Bank, where he spent 13 years.
Investment banks are viewing technology as a more critical function than ever, and movement in the senior ranks has become decidedly more frequent.
“The pressure on investment banks’ CIOs currently is intense. Cost-cutting is top of the agenda, but the need to innovate has never been greater in the wake of a surge in fintech start-ups,” says Paul Bennie, managing director of technology recruiters Bennie Maclean.
In March Credit Suisse hired Simon Tasker, the former head of capital markets technology at Deloitte, as a managing director and Stuart Bevan joined Deutsche Bank to lead its cash equities technology division.
J.P. Morgan declined to comment.
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