German challenger N26 loses its chief risk officer
German neobank N26’s chief risk and banking officer Thomas Grosse has quit the firm citing personal reasons, marking the exit of a third senior executive in less than a year.
Thomas Grosse, N26’s chief risk officer, quits. Image source: N26
The news was first reported by The Financial Times, and sources say the challenger is yet to name a successor.
According to FT, Grosse was just one of two executives at N26 who held the regulatory clearance to run a bank in Germany.
Grosse joined N26 in 2019 as chief banking officer to oversee the firm’s bank entities and partnerships and to lead its banking functions. He took over the additional role of chief risk officer in 2021 to strengthen N26’s governance, risk and compliance.
In May 2021, German regulator Bafin issued an order to N26 to improve its anti-money laundering (AML) measures, and in October 2021, the bank had to pay a fine of €4.25 million for money laundering failures.
Grosse’s departure comes after chief financial officer (CFO) Jan Kemper left the firm at the end of January. He was replaced by Arnd Schwierholz later that same month.
In April last year, N26’s chief operating officer (COO) Adrienne Gormley left the firm to “pursue other challenges” and was replaced by Kemper, who had stepped in as interim COO. Following Kemper’s departure, N26 co-founder Maximilian Tayenthal took over as COO.
