Dive Brief:
- Huntington has hired BNY’s former chief risk officer, Senthil Kumar, to serve as the Columbus, Ohio-based lender’s next risk chief, the bank announced Thursday.
- Kumar begins at Huntington on Feb. 16 and succeeds Helga Houston, who will transition to a role as senior executive adviser and work with leadership “on key strategic initiatives in this important time of growth,” the bank said.
- Huntington’s C-suite switch-up comes days after the bank announced it had closed its acquisition of Cadence Bank. The transaction pushed Huntington’s assets to $279 billion and its branch network to around 1,400 locations. The bank closed its other 2025 acquisition – of Dallas-based Veritex Holdings – in October.
Dive Insight:
Kumar will oversee credit risk, operational risk, market risk and compliance functions as Huntington has graduated to a Category III bank. Past the $250 billion asset total, banks are subject to higher liquidity requirements, more frequent stress tests run by the Federal Reserve, increased capital buffers and stricter living will criteria.
Kumar, served for nearly six years as BNY’s CRO, leaving last April, according to his LinkedIn profile. Before that, he spent 15 years at Citi, working ultimately as risk chief of the since-reorganized Institutional Clients Group until his departure in 2019.
"I am thrilled to welcome Senthil to the executive team and into this critical role," Huntington CEO Steve Steinour said. "His proven leadership and wealth of experience will further Huntington's strong risk management culture as we enter the next phase of growth and innovation."
Kumar will join Huntington’s executive leadership team and report to Steinour.
Houston moves into her advisory role March 1 after more than 14 years as Huntington’s CRO, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Huntington is projecting between 11% and 14% revenue growth in 2026 and expense growth between 10% and 11%, according to fourth-quarter earnings results issued last month.
The Cadence acquisition stands to add 1.5 million customers to Huntington’s base, and the systems migration is expected around midyear. Meanwhile, Huntington has been working on product mapping, charting Cadence’s products, general ledger and financial statements to its own, to understand how to ingest Cadence’s financials into Huntington’s, CFO Zach Wasserman said recently.
While the Cadence and Veritex acquisitions will expand Huntington’s Texas footprint, the bank also plans to grow its presence in North and South Carolina by opening 20 to 25 branches in the states this year, Wasserman noted.
