The Founders Bank project appointed senior Deutsche Bank executive Kenan Altunis to the role of CEO. Altunis will lead a team comprised of senior executives with decades of global financial services experience across banking, asset management and corporate finance.
Once licensed, Founders Bank will be a corporate challenger bank servicing the tech industry, including blockchain and other emerging technologies. It aims to develop a robust, enterprise-focused bank that will redefine banking services.
In his last role, Altunis served as global co-head of the Institutional Client Group within Deutsche Bank’s Corporate and Investment Bank where he was responsible for a multi-billion-dollar revenue operation and a team of over 1000 people. He helped guide the bank’s investment banking business, dealt directly with the world’s largest institutional investors and regulatory bodies, and was a member of its executive committee, reporting directly to the Deputy CEO of the bank. Altunis will commence his appointment upon cessation of his Deutsche Bank commitments in early June 2019.
Altunis said, “I’m excited about this segue in my career from managing traditional banking to building a world-class corporate challenger bank. We will focus on servicing technology companies who find accessing and using existing financial services difficult and cumbersome. These will include companies in emerging technologies, such as blockchain and crypto.”
Altunis will lead a multi-skilled team of senior executives with decades of experience leading firms such as Deutsche Bank, Barclays, HSBC, Citibank, Bank of America, Royal Bank of Canada, Brevan Howard, KPMG, Mastercard, Amazon, Paypal and Bitpesa.
“As one of the lead investors of the Founders Bank project, we are committed to developing the ecosystem and supporting infrastructure cornerstones to facilitate growth across the broader industry,” said Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance.
The Founders Bank project is currently under a licensing process to obtain an EU banking license from the Malta Financial Services Authority. It will offer its services throughout Europe and beyond.
The project has to date hired a senior c-suite, each of whom have more than fifteen years of experience in senior roles in financial services and technology businesses.
