Former Westpac executive Rob Whitfield has taken the penultimate step to becoming the next chair of Commonwealth Bank after he was appointed to preside over the board's risk committee.In a move that hints Whitfield will take over the reins of the company when current chair Catherine Livingstone retires from the board, Whitfield will be responsible for overseeing risk management across the organisation from 1 November.Given the well documented risk management failures in CBA's recent past and the resulting regulatory capital imposts that the bank is now required to carry on its balance sheet, Whitfield now occupies the most important board role at CBA alongside Livingstone.The battle-scarred CBA board is heaping plenty of responsibility on Whitfield. The bank also announced yesterday that he would be joining the audit committee next month.He now sits on three of the board's four sub-committees.Livingstone, who turns 65 in September next year, appears to have defined a clear pathway for succession and a potential early exit.Whitfield's career at Westpac was heavily influenced by former CEOs Bob Joss and David Morgan during the reconstruction of the bank from its near-death episode in the early 1990s.Under Morgan he was appointed chief risk officer and later became head of institutional banking. CBA also announced last night that independent director Paul O'Malley will take over as chair of the remuneration committee from January next year when long-serving board member David Higgins retires his post.O'Malley, a former chief executive at Bluescope Steel, has also joined the risk committee.National Australia Bank yesterday appointed Boral chairman and former Reserve Bank board member Kathryn Fagg as an independent director.Fagg, a former ANZ executive, has a diverse management background that has included senior roles at Bluescope Steel, Linfox and Esso Australia.