The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has appointed a dedicated chief technology officer, poaching its latest senior tech recruit from HSBC’s LatAm arm.

Rodrigo Castillo, most recently chief information officer (CIO) of HSBC Americas’ wealth and personal banking arm, has been appointed to lead CBA’s tech function.

A CBA spokesperson confirmed to FST Media that the new role would include oversight of the bank’s technology architecture, cloud, and infrastructure, and would bring CBA “in line with a modern operating model”.

CommBank’s group CIO and group executive for technology Gavin Monroe, himself a HSBC wealth and personal banking alum, announced Castillo’s appointment on LinkedIn. Munroe is also a relatively recent arrival at CBA, having replaced Pascal Boillat in the CIO role last November.

Munroe recognised Castillo’s extensive experience in “global IT operations management and [support of] critical IT services”.

He added that the pair “will be working closely together to retain CBA as the leading digital bank in Australia”.

Castillo served more than 15 years in various technology roles across HSBC’s Latin America division, including more than five years as CIO for HSBC’s retail bank for Latin America and, prior to this, as head of IT operations for HSBC Mexico for nearly two years.

Castillo lists his international expertise in IT management, telecommunications, relationship management, information security and project management.

As CTO, Castillo reports directly to group CIO Munroe.