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Deutsche Bank appoints new global head of regulatory affairs

Following the departure of Deutsche Bank’s compliance and regulatory affairs chief Andrew Procter to Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) in March, the investment bank has hired Banque de France’s Sylvie Matherat as its new global head of regulatory affairs, taking over some of Procter’s former responsibilities.

Matherat, who was the French central bank’s deputy director general of operations and director for financial stability, is set to start her position on 1 August and will lead an expanded government and regulatory affairs function with responsibility for regulatory adherence and implementation, relationship management, and advocacy. The bank has yet to confirm who will become its new head of compliance.

An internal memo seen by Legal Business states that strengthening the bank’s compliance function is an ‘integral’ part of its ‘Strategy 2015’ and one where it will continue to make significant investments.

Daniela Weber-Rey, the bank’s current chief governance officer and deputy global head of compliance, who was hired from Clifford Chance last April, was asked to work closely with Procter to ensure a smooth transition for his departure, according to the memo.

Matherat will become a member of the group executive committee, which performs advisory, coordinating, performance-monitoring and decision-preparing functions for the management board.

Having joined Banque de France in 1986 and held various senior roles, she will now be based in Frankfurt and report to management board member Stephan Leithner, whose functional responsibilities include government and regulatory affairs.

Co-chief executive officers of Deutsche Bank, Jürgen Fitschen and Anshu Jain, said in a joint statement: ‘Sylvie’s appointment underscores our commitment to further improve our control environment and engagement with regulators globally.’

Other significant appointments in the sector include IMI’s hire of Jo Morgan as chief compliance counsel in April. Her move came nine months after BAE System’s compliance and regulation chief counsel Mark Serfozo joined Rolls Royce as director of risk after nearly 20 years with the defence, security and aerospace giant. It further emerged last August that Berwin Leighton Paisner financial services partner Nick Kynoch had joined Barclays Investment Bank as the head of regulatory compliance for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

Sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk