CLS Group, a settlement services provider in the foreign exchange market, has appointed two new members to its board of directors. They are Gottfried Leibbrandt (independent director) and Shuta Okawara (MUFG Bank).

Leibbrandt is former chief executive officer of SWIFT, a role he held from 2012 to 2019. Prior to this, he held several roles within SWIFT, including head of marketing, head of standards and director of strategy and business development. Prior to joining SWIFT, Leibbrandt was a partner with McKinsey & Company, focusing on financial institutions, specifically payments and transactions.

He is a member of the supervisory board of Yes.com and the co-author of an upcoming book on payments, “The Pay Off: how changing the way we pay changes everything”, to be published on July 1 2021.

Okawara is currently managing director and head of the transactions services division of MUFG Bank. His career has revolved extensively around custody and clearing. He has been involved in most of the settlement systems reform initiatives that have led to mitigating settlement risks and standardizing securities and currencies settlement processes.

Both directors will be joining the technology and operations committee, while Gottfried will also be joining the product development committee. The CLS Board now comprises 21 directors in total, nine of whom are designated as outside or independent directors.

Board chairman Ken Harvey welcomed the two new board directors. “Their specific experience in and knowledge of payments, transactions and settlement systems relate closely to CLS’s core focus and will be invaluable to us as an organization as well as our members and other relevant stakeholders. We look forward to working with them as we continue to develop our role as a systemically important financial market infrastructure, strengthening resilience and efficiency across the global FX ecosystem,” he says.