Antonia Cosenz appointed chief governance officer of Banco BPM
The Board of Directors of Banco BPM has announced the appointment of General Counsel Antonia Cosenz (pictured) as Chief Governance Officer of the Group.
A lawyer with a well-established background in the legal and financial sectors, Antonia Cosenz has served since January 2017 – the year of Banco BPM’s formation – as Head of Legal and Regulatory Affairs at Banco BPM, leading a team of over 200 professionals and serving as a board member of several Group companies.
Prior to joining BPM (one of the two banks that merged to create the current Banco BPM Group), she worked at law firm Chiomenti, specialising in corporate law and capital markets, advising leading issuers and financial institutions on corporate and governance matters, extraordinary transactions, and corporate finance.
With her appointment as Chief Governance Officer, she has been entrusted with a newly established function called Group Corporate Affairs, which will oversee corporate secretarial activities, group corporate advisory, general affairs, regulatory monitoring, complaints management, and alternative dispute resolution procedures.
Cosenz will also retain coordination of the Group’s Legal area, with direct reporting lines covering legal advisory, litigation, legal finance, and the management of relations with Supervisory Authorities.
The establishment of the Chief Governance Officer role, reporting directly to the Chief Executive Officer, reflects, as Banco BPM has stated, the need to strengthen oversight of corporate governance and legal matters in light of both the evolving regulatory and banking environment and the expansion of the Group’s areas of specialisation. The new structure aligns with the organisational models adopted by leading international peers, in which the governance function holds a top-level position.
