The chief executive officer of
ING Direct has announced his retirement after 24 years with the non-major bank.
Vaughn Richtor, the CEO of ING Direct Australia and CEO of ING Retail Banking Asia has decided to retire from the lender mid-2016.
Richtor was the founding CEO of ING Direct Australia, creating Australia’s sixth largest retail bank within 10 years between 1996 and 2006. He remained on the board while pursuing his career with ING in Asia before returning to Australia as CEO three-and-a-half years ago.
Richtor has also been a major contributor to the success of ING beyond Australia, having led India’s ING Vysya as managing director and non-executive director through a major turnaround between 2006 and 2009.
In addition, he led ING commercial and retail banking operations across Asia between 2009 and 2012.
“Vaughn will be leaving a highly successful bank that he guided with passion and enthusiasm from the very first day of business,” ING Direct chair Michael Katz said.
Succeeding Richtor at the helm of the non-major will be
Uday Sareen, who is currently president of operating management committee at Kotak Mahindra Bank India.
Sareen joined ING Vysya Bank in 2007 from Citibank India, where he headed up the branch banking business. As ING Vysya’s head of retail & private banking, he managed the retail bank’s turnaround and oversaw a national expansion with the rollout of more than 100 new branches in three years.
In November 2012 Uday moved to Germany as ING-DiBa’s chief strategy officer, returning to ING Vysya in April 2014 as deputy CEO, responsible for strategy and wholesale banking.
Following the merger of ING Vysya Bank with Kotak Mahindra Bank in April 2015, Sareen has been responsible for the integration of ING Vysya’s retail banking businesses.
Sareen is expected to start the ING Direct Australia CEO role in June this year. Richtor will continue to represent ING on the board of TMB Bank Thailand and act as an advisor to ING in the region.
