Morten Friis, chief risk officer at Royal Bank of Canada, will retire on January 10, 2014, after over 30 years at the firm.

Friis joined RBC in 1979 and has worked in various divisions including project finance, corporate banking, fixed income, business banking and within RBC’s financial institution business. He was appointed as CRO in 2004 and joined RBC’s Group Executive, the bank’s senior management committee, in 2009.

Mark Hughes, currently chief operating officer, RBC Capital Markets, has been named as RBC's new CRO, effective January 10, 2014 - he will also join RBC’s Group Executive and become deputy chief risk officer on November 1, 2013.

RBC, which yesterday issued its third quarter results, has also announced that David O’Brien will retire as chair of the board, effective December 31, 2013. O’Brien will be replaced by Kathleen Taylor, who has been an independent director since 2001.

O’Brien has served as non-executive chair since 2004 and as an independent director since 1996. He will stay on as a director until the annual meeting of shareholders in Toronto on February 26, 2014, RBC said.

The Canada- and New York-listed Bank has, meanwhile, added Thomas Renyi to its board of directors.

Renyi is a corporate director with experience in the financial services industry, having served as executive chairman of The Bank of New York Mellon from July 2007 until he retired in August 2008. Prior to that, he was chairman and chief executive of The Bank of New York Company and the Bank of New York for 10 years.  

As reported elsewhere on Family Wealth Report today, Net income at RBC Wealth Management ended the third quarter of 2013 at what the firm said was a record $236 million, up $80 million, or 51 per cent, compared to a year, and up $11 million, or 5 per cent, on the previous quarter (view full results here).