Banks' Risk Officers at Risk

Nat City managed to sell its subprime lender, First Franklin, to Merrill Lynch last year before the subprime meltdown, but it still holds a significant amount of nonprime loans on its balance sheet.

While the firms did not blame outgoing risk chiefs for their troubles, they did both make high-profile changes.

Citi said its Chief Risk Officer Dave Bushnell, a 22-year veteran of the company, will "retire" at the end of the year. The New York banking titan has also formed an advisory committee of senior leaders from across the company to provide input to strengthen Citi's risk management process.

Nat City said its former Chief Risk Officer Jim Bell "elected to leave the company."

Bell is replaced by Dale Roskom, who was hired by the bank in December 2006. Roskom has served as the chief risk officer for Barclaycard UK, the credit card unit of Barclays(BCS Quote). He has also served in credit risk and finance roles at JPMorgan Chase(JPM Quote).

Roskom will assume oversight of the Cleveland bank's corporate-wide risk management system and serve as chairman of its corporate credit policy committee and enterprise risk committee, Nat City says.

Citi's Bushnell will be replaced by Jorge Bermudez, also a longtime veteran of the company. He will be responsible for market, credit and operational risk around the world for Citi and its subsidiaries. Bermudez will report directly to Citi's acting CEO Sir Win Bischoff.