Banking group Absa has announced that it has restructured its retail and business banking segment, including a new leadership team and operating model that will kick in next month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As part of the structural changes, the group’s everyday banking, product solutions and private wealth segments have been integrated into a new division called Personal and Private Banking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Christine Wu and Geoffrey Lee, former chief executives for the old segments have been appointed as interim co-chiefexecutives for the new retail business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bank’s relationship banking segment will now operate as Business Banking, with a more focused approach to small and medium businesses and commercial clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Absa veteran Faisal Mkhize, chief executive for relationship banking, will assume the role of chief executive for business banking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The leaders will continue to serve on the Absa Group Executive Committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Charles Russon, Absa\u2019s Interim Group Chief Executive Officer, said the changes are kicking off a new era for the bank, with the new franchises integral to its performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere are clear commercial benefits that will flow from the new business construct, which will be steered by seasoned, experienced and established Absa executives,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mkhize has been with Absa since 1996 in various leadership roles, while Wu and Lee have more than 20 years of collective experience at the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group said the changes will take effect from 2 June 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The changes also come ahead of Absa’s new CEO, Kenny Fihla, taking up his position later in June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fihla, the former deputy CEO of Standard Bank, was announced as Absa’s new CEO in March. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He will become Absa\u2019s seventh CEO in as many years. Following the early retirement of CEO Arrie Rautenbach, Russon took over as Interim CEO in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russon will stay on as Interim CEO until 16 June 2025. He will work closely with Fihla to ensure a smooth leadership transition, whereafter he will take another key senior role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another key change at the group will be its board chair after the current chairman, Sello Moloko, steps down from the role and as an independent non-executive director, effective 15 July 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ren\u00e9 van Wyk will succeed Moloko as chairman of the board effective 15 July 2025, subject to regulatory approval.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Absa has announced big structural and management changes – the latest in an organisational shake-up that its leadership believes will deliver it into a new era.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":794531,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[961],"tags":[29],"class_list":["post-826202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking","tag-absa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=826202"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":826208,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826202\/revisions\/826208"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/794531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=826202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=826202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=826202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}