The Board of Directors of the Liberian Bank for Development and Investment (LBDI) has appointed 2008 Tutu Fellow Christian Allison as the bank's new President and CEO. The appointment was effective as of July 1, 2023.
Christian has worked as a financial services regulator and risk management professional at the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL) for more than 21 years, before being selected for the CEO position at LBDI.
Christian's new role follows extensive interaction with LBDI that he had while at the Central Bank, where he was the Resident Administrator of LBDI. In that role, he led the implementation of an IMF-approved resolution strategy for the resuscitation of LBDI. He oversaw decisions affecting the bank that were critical to the restructuring and cost rationalization that resulted in the bank’s stabilisation. In that three-year period, he oversaw a $31.5 million recapitalisation of LBDI; $13 million of outstanding obligations to the bank; increases in the vault, reserve, and current account holdings; and the corporate governance restructuring of the bank. These actions have restored the confidence the bank currently enjoys. A former president and CEO of the bank - Deo Z Delaney - resigned after it emerged that his resume had been overstated and that his credentials were not as given. The bank was also under a cloud after the Liberian Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) found discrepancies in their accounts and took action in 2021.
Christian was recruited to the Liberian Central Bank (CBL) directly from college in 2002 as one of the high-performing students and served in several capacities at the CBL, rising through the ranks under the stewardship of six different governors over the years. He served as Junior Bank Examiner for five years; Senior Bank Examiner for one year; Assistant Director for Supervision & Surveillance for four years; Assistant Director, Regulation & Policy for one year; Chief Risk Officer/Head, Risk Management Section for four years; and as Director for Enterprise Risk Management for the last six and half years.
In addition to his degrees, he has remained active in building his credentials with a range of courses and certificates like cybersecurity risk management from Harvard, and risk-based supervision from the US Federal Reserve Bank. In his professional community, he has played an important role in capacity building, facilitating training courses for bankers in West Africa in risk management, corporate governance, and corrective actions.
His appointment can be seen at the LDBI website.
Header image: Christian Allison at the LDBDI
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