Cambridge & Counties Bank has appointed James Royle as its chief risk officer (CRO) to replace Mike Hudson, who will retire this year.
Hudson has over 40 years of experience in financial services, having held risk roles at Brown Shipley, Metro Bank, Hitachi Capital and Alliance and Leicester. He has been at Cambridge & Counties Bank for five years, and in retirement, he plans to step back from a full-time executive position to pursue non-executive director opportunities.
Royle (pictured) will take up the post in March and report to chief executive Donald Kerr. He was most recently at Recognise Bank for nearly two years as its CRO. He led the management of risk at Recognise Bank, including prudential, credit, enterprise, operational, cyber, climate and reputational risk classes, across all product lines.
Prior to this, he worked at HSBC for nearly 23 years in a number of risk and relationship manager roles and was most recently the managing director and deputy chief operating officer for UK commercial banking. He held this position for over four years.
Royle’s appointment follows the recent hiring of Richard Hanrahan as the CFO at Cambridge & Counties Bank.
Kerr said: “We are, again, very pleased to welcome someone of James’ calibre and experience to the team. Risk management has continued to rise up the list of critical business responsibilities, and he and his team will play an intrinsic role in helping us deliver on our organisational goals and deliver excellence to our clients.
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“I would like to take this opportunity to personally thank Mike Hudson for his incredible support in helping turn Cambridge & Counties Bank into the competitive institution it is today.”
He added: “Mike has been a terrific CRO over the past five years and has demonstrably improved the risk management framework, as well as enhancing our relations with our regulators, among many others. He built out a strong second line team while at the same time being a great advocate of our growth plans.
“He leaves with my sincere gratitude and thanks for all he has done.”
