The Commonwealth Bank’s head of institutional banking and markets, Ian Saines, will leave the company at the end of the year.

Mr Saines has been with CBA since 2004 and has been group executive, institutional banking and markets since 2009.

“During the past four years, Ian has been a valued and highly-regarded member of the group’s executive committee,” CBA chief executive Ian Narev said in a statement on Monday.

“Importantly, Ian led the business through the challenging GFC (global financial crisis) period and through to the most recent financial period where the continued progress of the Total Capital Solutions strategy led to a 10 per cent lift in profits.”

Mr Saines said he was looking forward to the next phase in his career.

“I consider my current role to be one of the best in Australian banking, so a decision to stay would have been easy,” he said.

“However, the strength of the business and the outstanding quality of its talent gives me the opportunity at this time to move on to a new phase in my career.”

CBA said it would search both internally and globally for a replacement for Mr Saines.