Standard Bank Taps South Africa Ex-Treasury Head as Local CEO
Standard Bank Appoints Fuzile to Head South African Operations
(Bloomberg) -- Standard Bank Group Ltd. appointed Lungisa Fuzile, the former director-general of South Africa’s National Treasury, as the chief executive officer of its operations in the country.
Fuzile, 51, will start as soon as possible, Standard Bank group CEO Sim Tshabalala said by phone. The country’s central bank has approved Fuzile’s appointment, Tshabalala said.
“He’s a seasoned economist with a deep knowledge of the financial system, the policies,” Tshabalala said of Fuzile. “He’s got an extensive network of relationships within the corporate and regulatory environment.”
Fuzile asked to leave the National Treasury in April, a year before his contract expired, after President Jacob Zuma fired former Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and replaced him with Malusi Gigaba, who had no financial or business experience.
Standard Bank appointed Tshabalala as head of the group in September, ending the dual CEO role he shared with Ben Kruger, and making him the first black person to independently lead Africa’s largest lender by assets.
Tshabalala held the position Fuzile will occupy for five years before he was named to head up the banking group with Kruger 2013. As sole CEO, he was still tasked with overseeing Standard Bank’s South African operations when the lender made its announcement in September.
To contact the reporters on this story: Renee Bonorchis in Johannesburg at rbonorchis@bloomberg.net, Loni Prinsloo in Johannesburg at lprinsloo3@bloomberg.net, Franz Wild in London at fwild@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Stefania Bianchi at sbianchi10@bloomberg.net, John Viljoen, Gordon Bell
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