The Risk Management Association (RMA), a membership organization of large, midsize, and community banks, announced today President and Chief Executive Officer Nancy Foster will retire on Aug. 31, 2023, after five years leading the organization—and decades as an RMA Member and Board Member.
“Leading RMA has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career,” Foster said. “As a banker who came up through the ranks of risk management at both large and community banks, RMA was pivotal in my career development. As President and CEO, I saw RMA enhance its leadership in risk management and credit solutions , providing additional value for Members and the industry. I leave with great optimism for the future of the organization and a grateful heart for all that RMA Members and partners have done for me.”
During her tenure, Foster presided over a number of major advancements for RMA, including:
- Making Associate Membership free for employees of RMA’s institutional Members, leading to a tripling of Membership. RMA now has 41,000 Associate Members, a number that is rapidly growing.
- Advancing DEI in the industry and at RMA, including launching the Women In Risk initiative, which has drawn thousands of attendees at peer-sharing events, and increasing the percentage of individuals from underrepresented groups on staff, in RMA management, as event speakers, and on the Board of Directors and Councils.
- Launching new products and business solutions to fill gaps in the industry, including Risk Rating and Model Validation.
- Creating the RMA Climate Risk and Regional Bank Climate Risk Consortia to bring the industry together and help it move forward on addressing this critical challenge.
“Nancy has led RMA during a time of significant change and challenge, including all the disruption wrought by COVID,” said RMA Board of Directors Chair and U.S. Bancorp Chief Risk Officer Jodi Richard. “Through it all, she has pushed the organization to achieve more than it imagined possible and to embrace technology, diversity, and new approaches. We are forever grateful to her for all her dedication and hard work and will miss her. She has put us on a path to even greater strength and stability as RMA enters its 110th year.”
RMA will immediately conduct a search for its next President and CEO. Foster will stay on through the end of the calendar year to onboard her successor.
Before taking on the CEO and President role at RMA in 2018, Foster had been Executive Vice President with Park Sterling Bank and Chief Risk Officer of CIT Group, Inc., where she was responsible for global enterprise-wide risk management. She previously served as Group Senior Vice President at LaSalle Bank Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of ABN AMRO, NV.
About Risk Management Association (RMA)
Founded in 1914, Risk Management Association is a not-for-profit, member-driven professional association whose sole purpose is to advance the use of sound risk management principles in the financial services industry. RMA promotes an enterprise approach to risk management that focuses on credit risk, market risk, and operational risk. Headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, RMA has 1,600 institutional members that include banks of all sizes as well as nonbank financial institutions. They are represented in the Association by 41,000 individuals located throughout North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia/Pacific.
