HSBC veteran Rumi Contractor is moving to Barclays as chief operating officer for UK retail and business banking, charged with driving "customer service innovation and technology across ... from product design to improvements to the branch network and customer contact centres."

Since 2008, Contractor has been Global Head of Service Delivery and chief executive of Global Resourcing at HSBC. Apart from short stints in New York with Bankers Trust and Citibank in 1998-2000, he has worked at HSBC since 1987, when he joined as a programmer.

When he returned in 2000 it was as chief information officer for South America, based in Brazil, and he has since been CIO at HSBC Securities and Investment Bank, New York; chief executive of the bank's software development centre in Pune, India, and CIO for the UK and Europe.

When he joins on March 1, he will report to Ashok Vaswani, chief executive of Barclays UK Retail and Business Banking, who described him as "a recognised leader in financial services operations and technology".

"Rumi is a highly seasoned business leader with a strong track record for strategic thinking, hands-on execution and building strong teams who collaborate and innovate to improve the customer experience," said Vaswani. "He is a great addition to our senior executive team."