SA banking CEOs not properly qualified: report

Lafferty Group, an international banking advisory firm, claims that only one of the current chief executives at the top four banks in South Africa is properly qualified.

This is according to Business Day, which reported that Barclays Africa’s (Absa) Maria Ramos is the only CEO with a specialist banking qualification, citing the latest Lafferty Bank Quality Ratings.

The report reviewed 100 banks globally and noted that Ramos holds a diploma from the Institute of Bankers, one of only four CEOs from Africa with ‘specialist qualifications’.

Michael Lafferty, chairman of the Lafferty Group, said: “We do not consider that being a chartered accountant, a lawyer or having an MBA amounts to a banking qualification.”

According to the Chartered Banker Institute, a Chartered Banker Diploma ‘combines the theory and practice of banking and aims to provide you with an extensive, detailed knowledge which will enable you to critically analyse key banking themes’.

BusinessTech recently looked at the tertiary qualification of chief executives of the biggest banks in SA.

Lafferty Group  however, recently ranked Capitec bank as the best bank in the world in its inaugural Bank Quality Rankings, despite the company’s CEO not having a ‘specialist banking qualification’.

Lafferty uses a combination of financial and non-financlial disclosures in banking groups’ latest annual reports to determine the quality of the organisations and their respective business models.

Among the indicators analysed are strategy, culture, customer satisfaction, executing brand promises and other criteria.

According to the report’s findings, Capitec came out on top, with the only 5 star rating out of the 100 banking groups listed.

Absa was rated second on Lafferty’s list.

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