Dina Palozzi has been appointed senior vice president and chief privacy officer of Bank of Montreal.

Palozzi will be accountable for privacy strategy and its effective implementation within the Bank of Montreal Group of Companies in Canada. She will oversee and coordinate the development, implementation and monitoring of all of the bank’s policies and practices to protect personal client information and to ensure full compliance with applicable provincial and federal government privacy legislation.

She assumes the privacy mandate in addition to her role as executive vice president, Client Relations, BMO Nesbitt Burns, to which she was appointed in July of this year.

“We take our responsibility to protect the confidentiality of personal information very seriously,” said Palozzi. “One key aspect of sound client relations is a commitment to the privacy of personal information. In any business, privacy of personal information is important; in financial services, it is essential.”

Prior to joining the bank, Palozzi has 29 years of experience with the Government of Ontario, where she served in a number of positions, most recently as Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Services Commission of Ontario.

Prior to that, she was Deputy Minister, Revenue and Financial Institutions, where she implemented policies affecting securities, property taxes and auto insurance and was instrumental in leading the initiative to provide the Ontario Securities Commission with rule making authority. Palozzi holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto and a Masters of Business Administration from York University.