Latest news with #Russon
TimesLIVE
31-05-2025
- Business
- TimesLIVE
Absa merges retail banking offerings as a building block for growth
Absa Group interim CEO Charles Russon says the bank is combining its three South African retail banking businesses into a single retail bank as part of a building block for its retail banking ambitions. Absa on Friday announced leadership and operational model changes for its retail banking business. The group is merging Everyday Banking, the Product Solutions Cluster and Private Wealth Banking segment into a new retail segment known as Personal and Private Banking. It named Christine Wu and Geoffrey Lee, the former CEOs of Everyday Banking and the Product Solutions Cluster respectively, as interim co-CEOs of the newly formed entity. Relationship Banking will now operate as Business Banking, paving the way for a focused approach in serving SMEs and commercial clients in a targeted sector. Business Banking will be led by Faisal Mkhize, who headed up Relationship Banking. The appointments come two weeks before Kenny Fihla, the former Standard Bank deputy CEO, joins Absa as the second black CEO on June 17. Russon told Business Times that Fihla would make the final appointment of a permanent Personal and Private Banking CEO. 'We all agreed it makes sense to continue with the process. The logic does not change, he (Fihla) can make the final appointment. Clearly it is a key process for him. We are starting the process but we are not constraining him to an outcome that he cannot work with.' An Absa insider who spoke on condition of anonymity said many employees doubted the rationale of appointing two interim CEOs for the retail business. 'Many of us internally see the reconfiguration as a positive step. But we are sceptical about the appointment of the co-CEOs even though it's on an interim basis. The old retail and business bank had a terrible performance in 2023.' Russon said the appointment made sense as Wu and Lee were running 95% of the business cluster. 'They are logical people to run it on an interim basis while we run the process in the background of appointing a CEO. The real crux is to appoint the permanent CEO, not the interim CEOs who are leading the business for a period of time.' He said a week ago that the group had completed the selection process for the cluster's vacancies with no job losses during the process. 'At this stage there are no job losses, we are not doing this to cut costs and remove roles. That was not the motivation. The motivation for this is that we wanted to bring our retail business together to ensure we showed up in the right way for our customers,' he said. Russon said the move to combine the businesses followed feedback from stakeholders last year including shareholders, regulators, investors and clients who had flagged the effectiveness of the cluster under its previous structure. 'The single item that was flagged and raised was why are you running your retail South African business as three separate businesses? Some were as precise as to say we don't understand it and we cannot invest in you, it is too confusing. As part of the strategy with the board last year as an executive committee we agreed this was a building block that had to be done, and you cannot wait for the permanent CEO of the group. It is something that was obvious and anyone coming in would bring this business unit together. We then communicated it to the market in December last year,' he said. Absa, which has 12.7-million customers, reported a 10% increase in headline earnings in the year ended December 2024. Russon said there is still a lot of work to do in the retail segment of the market where there is a lot of disruption. 'I think it is incredibly competitive — not just with banks. You have telcos, you have insurance companies, you've got consumer retailers all playing in and around the financial services space for the retail consumer. This is setting us up in the right way. Ultimately, with the right leader at the end of this process we should be set up for success,' he said.
Zawya
24-02-2025
- Business
- Zawya
South Africa: Russon takes reins as Interim CEO at Absa
Absa Bank Group, the Multinational Banking And Financial Services Conglomerate Based In South Africa, With Operations In 10 Sub-saharan African Countries, Has Appointed Charles Russon As The Interim Ceo Of Both The Group And Absa Bank. He will become an Executive Director on both Boards. He replaces Arrie Rautenbach, who became Group CEO in 2022 and is retiring after 27 years with the organisation. In a statement, the Board expressed its gratitude to Rautenbach for his commitment and extensive contribution over the course of his career with the Group. Russon's background encompasses two decades spent with Absa and a wealth of international experience in the financial sector. Until his appointment, he was CEO of Absa's Corporate and Investment Bank (CIB). He originally joined the Group in 2006 and the Executive Committee in 2014. Russon is currently a member of the Group Risk and Capital Management Committee (GRCMC), Group Credit Risk Committee (GCRC), Social, Sustainability and Ethics Committee (SSEC), and Information Technology Committee (ITC). In his earlier career, Russon completed his articles with KPMG and then joined Merrill Lynch in London as a Financial Controller for credit products. He worked for Deutsche Bank in London and Frankfurt from 1998 to 2006 as the Rates Head of Product Control before joining Absa Capital in September 2006 as its Chief Financial Officer. It is expected that with his career spanning African and global markets, Russon is well placed to steer Absa towards continued success as a key player in the continental financial landscape. Having had six CEOs since 2019, and in the context of fluctuating financial results – the Group's headline earnings per share fell 5% in the first six months of 2024, for instance – it is believed Absa is seeking consistency of performance at the executive level as it embarks on its search for a new permanent CEO. © Copyright IC Publications 2022 Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (
