BNY Mellon has named Mitchell Harris as the sole head of the company's asset management business on an interim basis.

Harris also continues in his role as chairman of the fixed income, cash and currency group of BNY Mellon Asset Management.

The company is currently conducting a search for a permanent head of the asset management business.

Jon Little, who had been serving as interim co-head of the business with Harris, is leaving to accept a new opportunity in the financial services industry.

"Our asset management business has great management strength across our boutiques," says Robert P. Kelly, chairman and chief executive officer of BNY Mellon. "The asset management leadership team has demonstrated resilience through challenging market cycles, continuing to provide our clients with strong investment performance and superior service around the globe. I'm pleased that we have the benefit of Mitchell's outstanding leadership during this transition period and we wish Jon the best in his new role."

"With a strong leadership team across our global franchise, we continue to earn additional business from new and existing clients," adds Harris.  "In fact, we reported USD13bn in net long-term asset inflows during the second quarter alone. We continue to capitalise on the excellent growth prospects for our business worldwide."

As head of the fixed income, cash and currency group, Harris oversees businesses with more than USD500bn in assets under management including Pareto, Standish Mellon Asset Management, Alcentra and BNY Mellon Cash Investment Strategies.

His prior roles include serving as chief executive officer of Standish and Pareto Partners. He remains the chairman of both.

Prior to joining Pareto in 1993, Harris worked at Citibank for 14 years where his roles included managing the private bank business in Germany and Jersey, and the London private bank for European marketing.