KeyCorp taps Truist exec as chief risk officer

KeyCorp has hired Mohit Ramani as chief risk officer. 

Ramani, whose appointment is effective Jan. 23, joins the Cleveland-based KeyCorp, parent of Key Bank, from the $523 billion-asset Truist Financial in Charlotte, North Carolina. Ramani served as Truist’s deputy chief risk officer. As Key’s chief risk officer, Ramini will oversee all aspects of the $190 billion-asset company’s risk management function. 

“I am very pleased to welcome Mo to Key,” Chris Gorman, KeyCorp’s chairman and CEO, said Wednesday in a press release. “I am confident that with Mo’s leadership, experience, and expertise we will continue to elevate our risk management practices and culture, further enabling strong, profitable growth for Key.”

Ramani’s appointment comes as banks are combating what some analysts have labeled a fraud epidemic. “I am excited for the opportunity to assist Key with this next phase of profitable growth amidst an increasingly complex risk environment,” Ramani said in the release. “I look forward to leveraging Key’s strong risk culture and progressing the firm further toward ‘risk intelligence’ by leveraging people, processes and technology.”

Ramani succeeds Darrin Benhart, who was appointed chief risk officer in January 2024. According to a spokesperson, Benhart is moving to a newly created position as KeyCorp’s chief regulatory officer. Benhart joined KeyCorp in July 2022 as head of enterprise risk management. Benhart spent the previous 30 years at Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, including a stint as deputy examiner in charge from December 2017 to August 2021. OCC named Benhart as its first climate change risk officer in July 2021.

Ramani went to work for SunTrust — whose 2019 merger with BB&T resulted in Truist’s creation — in 2016 as chief credit officer. Prior to that, Ramani served for three years as executive vice president for the Birmingham, Alabama-based Regions Bank. Ramani began his financial services career in 1996 as an analyst at Bank of America.

KeyCorp received a significant capital boost last month when the Canada-based Bank of Nova Scotia finalized a $2 billion minority investment in the company’s common stock. The Bank of Nova Scotia owns approximately 14.9% of KeyCorp.