Made in banking: Kenny Fihla and Sim Tshabalala share their bromance

New Absa CEO Kenny Fihla on Tuesday described Standard Bank chief Sim Tshabalala — his former boss — as a “brother”, as the two shared a stage for the first time since Fihla’s abrupt departure from Standard Bank in March.

The two respected bankers served at the helm of Standard Bank for more than a decade, with Fihla playing a key role in building the lender’s corporate and investment banking unit into a formidable high-finance player on the continent, accounting for half of the group’s earnings.

Under his tenure as Standard Bank’s CIB CEO in 2017-24, the division doubled its headline earnings to R20.5bn and achieved a compound annual growth rate of 8.6%.

“Sim is my brother. At some point, you must let your brother go and grow. There is an unbelievable culture that one was part of at Standard Bank,” Fihla said at the Bloomberg Africa Business Summit in Joburg.

Fihla surprised the market in March when he relinquished his role as deputy CEO of Standard Bank and crossed the floor to join Absa as its new CEO, a role he assumed in June.

His departure from Standard Bank came as a surprise, particularly as it followed just a few months after the group granted him more powers at the group in sweeping executive changes in September 2024, which essentially put much of the bank’s operations under his guidance and earned him a place on the board.

PODCAST: Can Kenny Fihla build on Charles Russon’s hard work at Absa?

He was elevated to the role of deputy CEO and assumed responsibility for Standard Bank SA and the group’s Africa regions.

However, the allure of being king in his own castle proved too much to resist, and he accepted the role of Absa boss, following years of leadership instability at SA’s third biggest lender — ending his 18-year association with Standard Bank.

Fihla’s appointment as Absa’s CEO meant that for the first time, four of SA’s largest banks — Standard Bank, FirstRand, Absa and Investec — will be led simultaneously by black CEOs.

FirstRand, the country’s most valuable banking group, is led by Mary Vilakazi, while Investec is marshalled by Fani Titi.

Tshabalala has not hidden his admiration of Fihla’s capabilities and repeated the same sentiments on Tuesday.

“Let me start at an institutional level. Absa is formidable … with a strong, fortress balance sheet. They have good people and a good brand, and they are fiercely competitive. If you take that capability with the excellence that [you get] in Kenny Fihla, you have something quite powerful,” Tshabalala said.

We worry intensely about the competitive dynamic because we know that Kenny is fierce and tackles us on the sports field.

“We worry intensely about the competitive dynamic because we know that Kenny is fierce and tackles us on the sports field.”

Fihla in September tapped Standard Bank for top talent to fill key roles in his management team as he prepares to take the group’s new growth strategy to market in the next few months.

To this end, Absa appointed Zaid Moola as CEO of its CIB business.

Moola leads Standard Bank’s highly successful global markets, which recently recorded a record profit of R5.4bn in the six months to end-June, a surge of 64% from the previous period, cementing its place as a cog in the group’s CIB division.

Moola’s appointment will take effect in January, subject to regulatory approvals.

In another signal that Fihla aims to grow Absa’s CIB business, the lender also appointed Musa Motloung as group strategic risk officer, joining from Standard Bank, where he holds the role of chief risk officer in the CIB business.

Motloung will report to the chief risk officer, Rajal Vaidya.

Standard Bank in September tapped insider David Hodnett as the next CEO of its SA operations, in keeping with the lender’s long tradition of promoting people from within its ranks to leadership roles.

The bank’s SA operations still account for a large chunk of its earnings and assets, which hover around R2-trillion — making the role Hodnett is stepping into of critical importance.

Hodnett’s appointment allowed Tshabalala to fully focus on executing the group’s strategy. Tshabalala took on the additional responsibility of acting as SBSA CEO after Fihla’s resignation.

The group, which derives about 41% of its earnings from outside SA, said Lungisa Fuzile’s acting role as CEO for Africa regions and offshore would now become a permanent appointment.