HSBC has combined the roles of CIO and chief operating officer.
CIO Ken Harvey is now chief technology and services officer. COO David Hodgkinson will retire at the end of the year.
HSBC says the move was crucial to helping it cut costs and improve customer "experience". It emerged last month that the firm has plans to cut 500 investment banking posts in London, a large proportion of which are thought to be back office and processing positions as well as IT.
Harvey will report directly to HSBC chief executive Michael Geoghegan, who maintains that the move reflected the importance HSBC attached to technology.
"By combining our technology and worldwide operations more closely we can re-engineer customers' experience of HSBC and at the same time drive down the unit cost of production," Geoghegan said when the merger of the CIO and COO roles was announced.
HSBC, which is creating a major new banking integration platform based on SAP NetWeaver, is consolidating IT onto a single global system. The 'One HSBC' programme is aimed at cutting costs.
In June, it renewed an IT services deal with Capgemini.