MUFG poaches top technology exec from U.S. Bancorp

MUFG Americas has a new chief information and operations officer.

MUFG said Wednesday that it has hired Christopher Higgins for the role. Higgins will report to Steve Cummings, president and CEO, and serve on the company’s executive committee. He starts on Dec. 10.

Higgins most recently served as chief information officer at U.S. Bancorp, where he was in charge of enterprise architecture, application development and testing, among other responsibilities. He joined the $464.6 billion-asset Minneapolis company in 2012 from Bank of America, where he worked for 18 years in information management.

In a press release, Cummings praised Higgins as “an ideal fit” for MUFG Americas, the U.S. division of the global banking giant Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group in Tokyo.

Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg

“His technical expertise and proven track record in leading forward-looking technology and operations initiatives that are customer-focused will be an enormous asset to our team as we evolve our business model,” Cummings said.

In his new role, Higgins will replace Chris Perretta, who plans to leave the company by the end of 2018, according to a spokesman. Perretta joined MUFG in April 2016.

The announcement comes as MUFG looks to embark on a U.S. expansion, at a time when its parent company is facing a stagnant economy at home. MUFG Union Bank, its $123.8 billion-asset banking unit, has just over 350 branches, mostly along the West Coast, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.