EastWest chief lending officer Jacqueline Fernandez assumed her new role as EastWest president on July 1.
Fernandez has been serving EastWest since 2006 and has been its chief lending officer since 2020. As she assumes her new role, Fernandez will turn over the stewardship of the bank’s consumer lending business to Lawrence Lee, another veteran in the field, and her former colleague in Standard Chartered Bank.
Lee will continue what Fernandez had built and established in her 16-year stewardship in consumer lending, in which she put EastWest among the top players in the space.
Lee comes to EastWest with over 30 years of experience in credit cycle, business finance, international risk and global operations across four continents: Asia, Africa, Australia and Europe.
Among his former roles are his time as the director of regional credit operations in Asia, Australia and Europe for Citi, where he had spent 15 years and pioneered various digital transformation initiatives.
He had also spent seven years as head of unsecured risk, credit cycle and finance for Standard Chartered Bank in the Philippines and Singapore, as well as previously serving in Barclays as the global head of collection design and a brief stint with American Express.
Lee also holds a Master of Arts degree in Applied Business Economics from the University of Asia and the Pacific, and graduated cum laude with a degree in Business Economics from the University of the Philippines Diliman.
“Ms. Fernandez has taken EastWest to new heights in the consumer lending space with her effective leadership and performance, and I intend to continue that legacy in tandem with her new role as EastWest president,” said Lee.
“Both our customers and our employees can rest assured that the Bank will continue to strongly focus on their goals and dreams, no matter what they may be,” Fernandez said.
