Kenny Fihla’s tenure as Absa CEO officially starts in two weeks, and the respected banker will have his hands full as the lender looks to put several years of leadership turmoil firmly in the rear-view mirror.
The bank is also aiming to strengthen its retail and business banking ecosystem and grow its return on equity, which has lagged its rivals for a number of years.
Absa pulled off a coup in March when it prised Fihla away from Standard Bank, where he had held multiple roles. His enduring legacy at Standard Bank was growing its corporate and investment banking (CIB) business into a juggernaut, indispensable to deal-making on the continent.
Under his guardianship as CEO in 2017-24, Standard Bank CIB doubled its headline earnings to R20.5bn and achieved a compound annual growth rate of 8.6%.
Yet he departed from Africa’s biggest bank by assets just months after being appointed deputy CEO, and control of the 19-country Standard Bank SA and the rest of Africa portfolio was consolidated in his office.
Fihla, who steps into the role on June 17, will become the seventh Absa CEO, either on an acting or permanent basis, since 2019 after years of turmoil at the top. When Maria Ramos retired in 2019 after a decade in the role, she was replaced temporarily by Rene van Wyk, who acted in the role for a year.
The lender then roped in former Reserve Bank deputy governor Daniel Mminele as CEO, who lasted just 16 months amid clashes with the board over strategy.
Jason Quinn acted in the role until Arrie Rautenbach was appointed to the position full time in 2022. But Rautenbach took early retirement last year and was temporarily replaced by Charles Russon, who will now hand over the reins to Fihla.
Another important challenge facing Fihla is to arrest declining staff morale.
The group acknowledged in its 2024 annual report, published in April, that it is experiencing a dip in employee satisfaction. The employee experience index, contained in the report, declined from 71.5 in 2023 to 64.6 in 2024, well short of its target of 70.
In his letter to shareholders in the annual report Russon said management recognised the need for institutional change to shape new narratives that supported a desired culture of performance.
“We have some work ahead as we actively seek to enhance employee engagement through deliberate and specific strategies to ensure that we create an environment where our diverse workforce can thrive,” he said.
“The challenging internal environment of the past year has undoubtedly influenced these outcomes, underscoring the need for us to focus our efforts for positive change through our culture transformation journey into 2025.”
One of Russon’s last actions as acting CEO was to make appointments in the newly formed personal and private banking. The bank tapped Christine Wu and Geoffrey Lee as interim co-CEOs of personal and private banking
The lender, valued at R155bn on the JSE, also appointed mainstay executive Faisal Mkhize to head the business banking unit.
“Today marks the beginning of a new era for Absa with the establishment of the personal and private banking and the business banking divisions in SA,” Russon said on Friday.
“We are confident in their appointments and that of the personal and private banking executive team that will complement Absa Group’s existing high-calibre and experienced leadership to support the bank’s strategy, ultimately allowing the group to harness greater talent and transformation from the internal pipeline.”
Absa’s plans to grow its business banking proposition will not be easy. The segment is dominated by FNB and Standard Bank, while African Bank, TymeBank and Capitec Business are also competing to win market share.
Nedbank in March announced a shake-up of its retail and business banking divisions. The reorganisation will see the creation of business and commercial banking, a juristic-focused cluster that will cover SMEs and commercial clients.
The segment will also target mid-corporate banking aimed at clients with an annual revenue turnover of R1bn and more.
Investec has also announced plans to create a single platform for midsized SA corporates to holistically manage their banking requirements and to accelerate transactional banking client acquisition to about three times the current base of 2,700, translating to a market share of about 8% by full-year 2030.
CORRECTION: June 2 2025
This article has been republished to correct the starting date for Fihla at Absa. He starts on June 17, not June 2.
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