Amex recruits its next chief risk officer from US Bancorp

• Key insight: Jodi Richard, who has been chief risk officer at U.S. Bancorp for the past eight years, is set to join American Express in January. 
• What’s at stake: Richard will oversee Amex’s global risk organization as the payments company addresses alleged anti-money-laundering deficiencies.

Processing Content

American Express has recruited one of U.S. Bancorp’s most senior executives to become its new chief risk officer, part of a broader management shuffle at the payments company.

Jodi Richard, who has served for eight years as chief risk officer at Minneapolis-based U.S. Bancorp, will join Amex in January. She will report to CEO Stephen Squeri, who announced the hiring Thursday in a memo to Amex employees. Richard will be based in New York and join Amex’s management committee.

One of American Banker’s Most Powerful Women in Banking for the past several years, Richard will succeed Doug Tabish. Tabish will become Amex’s president of enterprise shared services upon the retirement of Denise Pickett in February 2027.

Amex announced Pickett’s retirement plans and Tabish’s new role in a Wednesday memo, saying that Tabish will also report to Squeri.

As Amex’s chief risk officer, Richard will lead its global risk organization and “help ensure” that it continues to “balance innovation, growth and disciplined risk management” as it pursues its strategy, Squeri said in Thursday’s memo. He called Richard “an accomplished risk executive” and noted that earlier in her career, she worked as a national bank examiner for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

Prior to joining U.S. Bank’s parent company in 2014, Richard was the head of operational risk and internal control at HSBC North America.

“Throughout her career in banking, Jodi has demonstrated that risk management should be an effective partner to the business, and that while the need to innovate and grow is important, what is even more critical is taking the right risks responsibly,” Squeri wrote. “This is imperative to protecting our customers and our company while enabling the business to move forward.”

Amex’s hiring of Richard comes as the company addresses certain alleged deficiencies in its financial crimes risk-management program. Earlier this month, the OCC and the Federal Reserve issued cease-and-desist orders against the company’s banking arm and ordered it to improve its anti-money-laundering compliance program. The OCC fined Amex $350 million in connection with the alleged deficiencies.

In its consent order, the OCC alleged that Amex “experienced systemic breakdowns in its suspicious activity monitoring and reporting processes.” It said those breakdowns resulted in the company failing to report about $13 billion of suspected trade-based money laundering between 2014 and 2025.

In response to the regulatory orders, Squeri said that Amex “takes its responsibility to combat financial crimes seriously” and that it is “fully committed” to addressing regulators’ concerns. He also said the company had made “substantial investments” in areas such as people, technology, governance and training in order to better identify and respond to financial-crime risks.

Richard’s last day at the $703 billion-asset U.S. Bancorp will be this Friday, U.S. Bancorp CEO Gunjan Kedia told employees in a memo. Kedia added that Richard “has led a talented organization of professionals who have worked to build true risk management excellence at the company.”

Read more:

Richard was promoted to chief risk officer in 2018, a challenging time for U.S. Bancorp. In February of that year, the bank admitted to looking the other way regarding certain suspicious accounts and concealing from its regulator key information regarding its efforts to combat money laundering.

The bank was charged with two felony violations and ultimately entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York. U.S. Bancorp also agreed to pay $613 million in penalties.

In early 2025, U.S. Bancorp awarded Richard a one-time retention award valued at $3 million, in the form of restricted stock units. The award was based on Richard’s “critical role within the company in the current operating environment, the strength of the company’s risk management program, and Ms. Richard’s strong performance,” the bank said in its most recent proxy statement.

Fifty percent of the retention award was scheduled to vest on each of the third and fourth anniversary of the grant date, the proxy statement said.

U.S. Bancorp said Thursday that Troy Remington, its chief credit officer, will serve as interim chief risk officer while the bank begins a search for Richard’s permanent successor.

Kedia expressed confidence that U.S. Bancorp will be able to appoint a new chief risk officer quickly.