{"id":855288,"date":"2026-03-30T15:05:42","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T13:05:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=855288"},"modified":"2026-03-30T15:23:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T13:23:44","slug":"fnb-ceo-calls-it-quits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/banking\/855288\/fnb-ceo-calls-it-quits\/","title":{"rendered":"FNB CEO calls it quits"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

FirstRand has announced that FNB CEO Harry Kellan will take early retirement, with Lytania Johnson taking over the role. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kellan, who is the current CEO of the retail and commercial segment and FNB, will take early retirement at the end of 2026. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was with the FirstRand group for 22 years, including 10 years as the group CFO. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He took over as FNB CEO in April 2024 and embarked on a strategy to reduce structural complexity, improve agility and decision-making, and unlock efficiencies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

FirstRand said that these efforts have led to structural changes, which form part of a massive restructuring. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The broader group announced that it will restructure parts of its operating model within its banking portfolio, resulting in changes in certain senior roles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The majority of the changes relate to FNB, which has for many years operated with a customer segment model encompassing a retail and commercial segment, underneath which were sub-segments,” it said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was designed to meet customer needs and provide focused and appropriate product sets and services, and underpinned its ability to scale its client franchises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the group now believes that the absolute size and scale of the subsegments necessitate simplification. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This includes the overarching retail and commercial construct being replaced by a retail and business banking (RBB) segment that serves entry-level to middle-income individuals and SMEs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johnson, currently the CEO of the personal subsegment, will step up into the role of CEO of RBB and, at the same time, take over as the CEO of FNB. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She has been with FNB for 25 years, serving as the CEO of the personal segment for the past three years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new standalone segment will also sit alongside RBB, representing private banking and wealth management. Sizwe Nxedlana will remain the CEO of this segment, a role he has held since 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The enterprise and public sector subsegments of commercial will move into the newly established commercial and corporate bank (CCB) run by Muneer Ismail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In the two years I have been CEO of FNB, my focus has been on simplification, product, platform and structure,” said Kellan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The reconfiguration of the retail and commercial segment model is the next step required for the business to be even more agile and responsive to customer needs.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A host of changes for FirstRand<\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
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FNB’s new CEO Lytania Johnson <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

FirstRand is also appointing a new group Chief Operating Officer, Gert Kruger, who will focus on increasing collaboration, operational effectiveness, and disciplined coordination across the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kruger has been the group chief risk officer (CRO) since 2017, and got the role due to his deep understanding of the group’s operational structures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emma Mer, previously the CRO of the retail and commercial segment and FNB, will take over from Kruger as group CRO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FirstRand CEO Mary Vilakazi said that the group is confident the new structure will reduce complexity, improve CEO accountability, and ensure ongoing execution of growth strategies.

“FNB is in a good place as demonstrated by its recent results, with the South African business delivering 10% growth in pretax profits with the overall FNB franchise increasing its ROE to 41%,” said Vilakazi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Harry has done an excellent job of getting the business to a point where it can embark on these changes with clear strategic objectives.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johnson said that the simplified structure of the group will accelerate FNB’s ability to serve its customers and offer services and products efficiently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“By bringing together retail and business banking, we can better serve entrepreneurs, small businesses and households who require solutions that can cover their personal and business needs,” said Johnson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The changes to the leadership positions are effective 1 April 2026 and have all received the necessary regulatory approval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article has been updated. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FNB CEO Harry Kellan is taking early retirement, as the FirstRand group looks to simplify its businesses in a large restructuring<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":855310,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[961],"tags":[4088,76],"class_list":["post-855288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking","tag-firstrand","tag-fnb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855288","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\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=855288"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":855308,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855288\/revisions\/855308"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}