People in the News: Providian Names Two Credit Card Chiefs

As part of a larger restructuring, Providian Bancorp announced that its highly successful credit card business will be headed by two executives.

The announcement comes on the heels of the recent promotion of the bank's top executive, Shailesh Mehta, who in December was named president and chief operating officer of Providian Corp., the Louisville, Ky.,-based parent of Providian Bancorp.

"The new structure is consistent with Providian's capability-based strategy of developing and leveraging our competencies across the corporation's businesses," Mr. Mehta said.

While Mr. Mehta still oversees the bank's activities, he is not directly in charge of running the day-to-day operations of the bank card business. Instead, two Providian Bancorp veterans, Julie A. Montanari and Sami Siddiqui, will report to Mr. Mehta and run the bank's secured and unsecured card portfolios, respectively.

All of Providian Bancorp's existing products and businesses were split into two operating units: emerging businesses and unsecured spread businesses.

Ms. Montanari will run the former, which includes the bank's secured cards, home loans, and insurance products. The 38-year-old executive, who joined the bank in 1985, was named president of the new unit.

Previously, Ms. Montanari was executive vice president of Providian Bancorp for one year. She was responsible for the bank's unsecured credit cards, the home loan business, joint ventures, and strategic protection products.

Mr. Siddiqui, 41, will run the unsecured spread businesses, which includes the bank's unsecured credit card and cash loan products.

Mr. Siddiqui originally joined Providian Bancorp in 1985 as vice president of credit cards. He left the bank in 1992 for two years to be a card consultant, completing projects for MasterCard International.

He is rejoining the bank as senior vice president.

In her new position, Ms. Montanari is regaining responsibility for the secured card business.

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