Standard Chartered Bank’s Group Head of Risk Innovation, Ms Anju Patwardhan, has been appointed as the Bank’s first Group Chief Innovation Officer, effective 1 July 2015.
In this new role, Ms Patwardhan will shape the Bank’s strategic innovation agenda across its global network and through different business areas by harnessing a range of new technologies and rapidly advancing data science. This will enable the Bank to better understand its target clients, respond to their needs and innovate to enhance services.
Ms Patwardhan will be based in Singapore and become a member of Standard Chartered’s Technology and Operations Management Group. She will report directly to the incoming Group Chief Information Officer, Dr Michael Gorriz.
Ms Patwardhan will also oversee SC Studios, the Bank’s innovation outpost strategically positioned in San Francisco to scout for the Silicon Valley’s latest technology trends and tap the dynamic startup ecosystem.
This new role will enable Ms Patwardhan to build upon the Bank’s excellent progress in the digital space, existing examples include:
Standard Chartered named World’s Best Consumer Internet Bank by Global Finance magazine for four consecutive years for excellence in online and mobile banking.
Through SC Studios, the Bank identified and worked with a Silicon Valley data analytics startup to co-create an entirely new economic index for Nigeria using crowdsourced smartphone data collection. Clients are now using the Nigeria Consumer Price Tracker to track, in real time, previously unavailable consumer price changes.
Ms Patwardhan brings more than 20 years of international financial services experience to the role and has been acknowledged by many industry bodies. She is a Distinguished Fellow of the Singapore Institute of Banking and Finance, the nation’s highest financial services industry accolade, and a Fellow of the Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics at Singapore Management University - the leading economics think tank in Asia.
