Habib Bank Limited (HBL) has announced the appointment of Dr. Michael Maier as Chief Technology Officer with effect from 01 February 2022.
An official stataement stated that Dr. Maier has extensive expertise in building and running Digital Banking, Payments, tec-Stacks, and IT systems in financial services, with strong cross-sectoral and client-centric thinking combined with analytical and strategic skills. He also has strong leadership skills in changing market environments with agile teams and IT digital transformation.
In his new role at HBL, Dr. Maier will be working towards improving the technology strategy for the bank and continuing to build a robust technological infrastructure. He will also look at how to further implement new technologies within the bank to achieve the right economies of scale and support HBL’s Digital Agenda.
Dr. Maier will be reporting to Sagheer Mufti, HBL’s Chief Operating Officer.
Dr. Maier holds a Ph.D. from the Institute of Marketing, LMU Munich. He has vast experience of over 25 years working with various European Banks, including a leading Digital Bank. He has also provided advisory services during his career and has been on the Board of Directors of various organizations. He joins HBL from Fidor Solutions AG (which has been integrated into Sopra Banking Software since the end of 2021 after a successful acquisition and integration), where he was CEO from April 2019 until now.
HBL has relieved Dr. Aamir Matin from his previous role and offered him to become the bank’s Senior Advisor for the Core Banking change initiative and help build a Center of Expertise in Islamabad to source and deploy tech-savvy talent for the bank.
Dr. Maier’s appointment follows almost a year of agony when HBL services were consistently poor (in fact, they still are). To recall, in October 2021, HBL’s internet services fell down twice, causing major disruption to its customers in the first week of the month, which persisted in the second week despite urgent measures taken by the bank. In the subsequent month of November 2021, customers of the bank witnessed a surprise deduction of money from their deposits without any announcement from the bank.