The accounting genius who quit one of South Africa’s biggest banks – then came back to lead it
Rand Merchant Bank chief executive Emrie Brown once left the bank to move to Cape Town start a family, but ended up returning within six months, and ultimately moved on to become its first female CEO.
Brown was appointed as the CEO of RMB in 2022, taking over from James Formby, who was recently named Pick n Pay’s new chair.
RMB primarily represents FirstRand’s group activities in the corporate and institutional segments of South Africa and the broader African continent.
In addition, it has niche offerings in India and offices in the UK, the US, and China that focus on corridor business to the African continent.
Brown said that she didn’t grow up with a corner office in mind for her future, given her modest background.
She was the youngest of four children, with her father working on the railways. However, she quickly stood out due to her skills in mathematics.
Emrie went on to obtain an Accounting degree in 1990 from the University of Pretoria, and graduated cum laude as a Chartered Accountant (CA) from the then-Rand Afrikaans University in 1994.
She believed that placing second nationally in the accounting board exams was essential in opening doors for her in her career.
She worked for a year at auditing firm KPMG after graduation and spent a year lecturing before joining Nedbank in 1997.
After four years, she moved to RMB, where she has remained until this day.
Her first role in the group was as a transactor, specialising in various lending businesses, including property, cross-border finance and leveraged finance.
She then became head of Leveraged Finance in 2006, before departing from the bank to move to Cape Town to start a family.
However, after the first six months in the new city, she missed the bank so much she returned, heading up the Western Cape investment banking team.
Speaking to Financial Minds, Emrie said “In the moment, I didn’t appreciate the significance of it,” realising the value in being not only a mother, but also a highly successful businesswoman.
She would relocate again in 2015, moving back to Johannesburg after being appointed co-head of the Investment Banking Division, becoming the sole head in 2019.
This role included Corporate Transactional Banking, Investment Banking and Coverage, which accounts for the most significant portion of RMB’s total earnings.
Under her leadership, the RMB Investment Banking Division won several awards, including:
- The Banker – Most Innovative Investment Bank in Africa’ (four consecutive years)
- The ‘M&A Today Global 100 Investment Bank of the Year in Africa’ (2020)
- The ‘Global Finance Best Bank in Africa for New Financial Technology’
- ‘Dealmaker’s Best BEE Investment Adviser’ in 2019.
Emrie’s achievments and storied career hit its crescendo when she was appointed as Chief Executive Officer in October 2022, becoming the first female CEO of the bank.
“I am following in the footsteps of remarkable CEOs before me who have built a business that I am proud to have been a part of for most of my banking career,” she said at the appointment.
RMB’s financials
RMB’s latest financial results have been somewhat strong, with the group seeing normalised profit before tax (PBT) growth of 9% to R6.7 billion in the second half of 2024 despite the weak macroeconomic environment.
The South African business performed exceptionally well, with PBT up 11%.
The broader African portfolio showed a resilient local performance, up 12%, but only 3% in rand terms due to currency valuations.
However, RMB’s ROE trended downwards to 18.3%, driven by the lower level of earnings generated by global markets on its risk-weighted assets utilisation.
Brown’s former department of investment banking posted strong growth, continuing momentum from the previous financial year.
The group’s net interest income grew by 9% in core advances, 8% in average operational deposits, and robust average growth of 19% in SA investment deposits.
This growth was also aided by higher endowment on deposits and allocated capital.
Non-interest revenue (NIR) took a hit period-on-period, which was negatively impacted by lower levels of realisations and one-off income.
NIR was negatively impacted by its Global market’s operational performance, with PBT down 24% period on period.
A major spark for the group was that credit impairments reduced 17% period on period to R516 million.
The credit impairment charge to core lending advances stood at 21 basis points, far below the 31 basis points seen six months prior.
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