Australian banking's "celebrity-CIO" Michael Harte has resigned from the Commonwealth Bank to take up the technology reins at Barclays Bank in the UK later this year.Harte, who joined Commonwealth Bank in April 2006, won plaudits for steering CBA's A$1.1 billion core banking overhaul to replace legacy systems with a new SAP platform. CBA is the first of the majors to complete a full core banking system replacement.The bank's CEO, Ian Narev, yesterday praised that effort, which saw Harte lead a team of 1,500 people for six years, and play an ongoing role in driving innovation through the bank.Earlier this week Harte reflected on the reliable and responsive technology infrastructure that now underpinned the bank, acting as a firm foundation for future innovation which he said was essential given the increasingly competitive financial services market. He is expected to be replaced by an internal candidate in June according to Narev who noted; "Technology is a core strategic priority of the Group, and I am very pleased that we have a strong pool of internal candidates who will provide strategic continuity, and also lead us through the next phase of our technology and operations innovation, while maintaining on-going focus on security and resilience."For just a few weeks Harte has played the role of "last CIO standing" with Westpac, NAB and ANZ all announcing a change of the CIO-guard in the previous six months. However his move should not come as a major surprise as he had previously indicated his interest in taking on at least one more major technology transformation project overseas.Barclays Bank, which will welcome Harte from mid-2014, will certainly be hoping he lasts longer than its last chief operations and technology officer who held the role for less than a year. Shaygan Kheradpir was appointed to the position in March last year, but resigned in November to take on a US based role.Harte's new boss, Barclays chief executive Antony Jenkins, has already acknowledged the importance of modern technology and digital banking platforms as he rebuilds Barclays after a turbulent period following the Libor scandal and resulting $US450 million fine. As part of Project Transform Jenkins has noted that technology is expected to deliver £800 million worth of savings over three years.Harte will inherit a technology team of several thousand people, operating across 21 countries, and a different core system to the SAP platform installed at CBA. Barclays Bank is an FIS Systematics user while its US operations recently migrated to the FIS Profile system.