Maria Tedesco appointed CBA board chair

October 3, 2025 2:35 PM

In this week's banking news roundup: Maria Tedesco is elected 2025 board chair of the Consumer Bankers Association; Steffen Doyle is leaving Banco Santander;
Commerzbank's lawyers allege an ex-analyst made up sexual harassment claims against a colleague after he lost his job; and more.

The Consumer Bankers Association

Maria Tedesco appointed CBA board chair

The Consumer Bankers Association has elected Maria Tedesco, president and chief operating officer of Atlantic Union Bank, as its 2025 board chair. Her appointment follows the tenure of Brendan Coughlin, who will remain on the board as immediate past chair.

CBA President and CEO Lindsey Johnson praised Tedesco's appointment, highlighting her commitment to consumers and the retail banking industry amid a complex policy and regulatory environment.

Prior to Tedesco's tenure at Atlantic Union, she was chief operating officer for retail at BMO Harris Bank and served as senior vice president and managing director of the retail bank at Santander Bank. Before that, she spent 20 years at Citizens Financial Group where she became group executive vice president and executive director of retail banking and business banking for the company.

Tedesco was named one of American Banker's Most Powerful Women to Watch in 2015 and 2024; and American Banker's Women in Banking Top Six Teams in 2012 and 2017. —Editorial Staff

FINRA charged that Santander Securities sold municipal bonds to clients at unreasonable prices.

Susana Gonzalez/Bloomberg

Santander head of U.S. real estate investment banking set to exit

Steffen Doyle, head of U.S. real estate investment banking at Banco Santander, is leaving the firm after about two years, according to people familiar with the matter.

New York-based Doyle, who was a managing director, is expected to depart the Spanish lender, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the information is private. He joined Santander in 2023 from Credit Suisse, and previously worked at Jefferies and Bank of America Corp.

Doyle didn't return messages seeking comment. Santander said it declined to comment.

The departure marks a rare high-profile exit by one of the scores of former Credit Suisse bankers hired by Santander as it sought to bolster its investment banking operations in the U.S.

The bank has used the hires to enter new businesses, such as leveraged finance. The strategy has started paying off, with the U.S. corporate and investment banking division more than doubling profit in 2024. —Rodrigo Orihuela and Jorge Zuloaga, Bloomberg News

Commerzbank accuses ex-analyst of ‘wholly bogus’ sex assault claims

An ex-Commerzbank analyst made up "wholly bogus" sexual harassment allegations against a colleague and lied to courts on a "gross scale" to get compensation after he lost his job, lawyers for the bank alleged. Damilare Ajao, who worked as a compliance analyst, was ruled to have lied in a discrimination and harassment claim against the bank — after which Commerzbank sued him for contempt. An employment judge previously said a sexual assault claim against one colleague was "pure invention" and he was "unworthy of belief."

Ajao was dismissed after just six months at the bank in 2019 "because of the way he conducted himself with colleagues," according to the lender. He has denied all of the allegations at a London hearing.

The bank's arguments over how Ajao must have behaved were "both dangerous and unfair," Sasha Wass, Ajao's lawyer, said in documents prepared for the case.

Commerzbank alleged Ajao lied to the court and his allegations had a "serious adverse effect" on the health of a female colleague he accused of harassment. —Upmanyu Trivedi, Bloomberg News

Deutsche Bank ESG executive leaves amid top-level reorganization

Deutsche Bank's global head of ESG and sustainable finance for fixed income is leaving the bank, as the lender creates a new role with a broader focus. Claire Coustar, who has been with the bank in various roles since 2003, announced her departure in a post on Linkedin. In a separate post, Deutsche Bank Chief Sustainability Officer Jorg Eigendorf said Esra Turk has been made global head of sustainable finance in investment banking, which is a newly created position.

Coustar and a spokesperson for Deutsche Bank declined to comment. Turk didn't respond to a request for comment. In a LinkedIn comment on her new role, Turk said Deutsche Bank takes "seriously" its responsibility to be part of the energy transition.

Turk, who joined Deutsche Bank from Barclays in 2021, previously ran the German bank's Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa institutional client group, according to her LinkedIn page. —Natasha White, Bloomberg News

Riksbank promotes Bunge to first deputy governor after Breman

Sweden's central bank promoted Aino Bunge, a member of the rate-setting board, to the role of first deputy governor.

She succeeds the outgoing Anna Breman who is leaving Oct. 10 to head the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. The Riksbank has begun the process to hire a new executive board member, it said in a statement Friday.

Bunge's elevation means she will deputize for Governor Erik Thedeen as chair of what is ordinarily a five-member policy board, standing in if he is absent. She began her six-year term at the Riksbank in late 2022 and was previously an official at the Finance Ministry and Finansinspektionen, Sweden's banking watchdog.

The world's oldest central bank is currently facing a thorny policy challenge as it seeks to guide inflation down from a current 3% to its 2% target at the same time as it nurses the economy back to health after a long downturn. The board reduced its main interest rate to 1.75% from 2% on Tuesday and signaled it is done with cuts to borrowing costs. —Charlie Duxbury, Bloomberg News