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The push to attract new talent has lifted the lid on the dearth of female leaders in South Africa’s banking industry.FirstRand is the only lending group in the country to be led by a woman, underscoring the handful of female leaders in the big five lenders.Mary Vilakazi became First Rand’s first female CEO when she took the helm of the financial service provider in 2024. Previous female CEOs in banking include Maria Ramos at Absa for a decade and Basani Maluleke who headed African Bank.Standard Bank, chaired by Nonkululeko Nyembezi, has Funeka Montjane, CEO of the bank’s private and personal banking, while Margaret Nienaber serves as the COO and Sharon Taylor is the chief people and culture officer.Capitec has had a female chair, Santie Botha, for a decade, while Basani Maluleke heads up the personal banking division.The C-suite at Absa and Investec is mostly male dominated.At Investec only the UK business is led by a woman, while men dominate big divisions. Ruth Leas serves as the CEO of Investec Bank, the UK and international subsidiary of the group.Investec told Business Times that there was a focus on bolstering gender representation in the C-suite. “While the pace of gender transformation at a senior leadership level has moved at a slower pace than we would like, we are committed to strengthening representation in this area. “We have accelerated strategies to ensure that future leadership has fair female representation, and we are investing in developing a strong and diverse pipeline,” said Investec in response to questions from Business Times.Absa, South Africa’s third largest bank, has had a major shake-up of its top brass, predominantly comprised of males, since last year.Sitoyo Lopokoiyit, previously from M-Pesa, was appointed Absa’s Personal and Private Banking CEO since April 2026, Leonard Barnard joined the bank as CEO of Business Banking in June 2026 and Zaid Moola has headed up the Corporate and Investment Bank since January 2026. Both Barnard and Moola were poached from Standard Bank. Last week the bank said Yasmin Masithela had opted for early retirement while Punki Modise also stepped down in 2026.Daniel Munslow, Absa’s managing executive for group communications, said achieving true gender parity at the highest levels of senior executive leadership “remains an ongoing journey — not just for our institution, but across the broader financial services sector".He added: “While we have made significant strides in board-level diversity and broader workforce inclusion, women comprise 63% of our workforce as at 30 June 2026 We acknowledge that female representation at the absolute pinnacle of executive decision-making is an area requiring deliberate, accelerated focus.”He low said women play a key role in the bank, pointing to women leading several portfolios represented at exco level.“We do not view diversity as a checkbox exercise, but as a strategic business imperative. To ensure sustainable transformation rather than superficial fixes, we are actively dismantling the structural barriers that women face mid-career,” he said.Munslow said steps had been taken to shift gears from traditional role-based planning to building future-ready capabilities as part of succession planning.The bank’s approach to successor development is pivoting to critical exposures and practical leadership experiences.“This allows us to actively identify, develop, and retain high-potential female leaders across all business units, equipping them to step into upcoming executive vacancies, setting them up for success,“ Munslow said.In a trading update last week, Absa announced its return on equity for 2026 would be 15%.Kokkie Kooyman, the head of global financials at Denker Capital, said that Absa finds itself in a tough spot with CEO Kenny Fihla being brought in to restore the return on equity (ROE) to where it should be.He said a diversified team is important but that that is where the focus will return to once the group restores its ROE.“Kenny and his team made the decision to first bring experience on board. And there just aren’t enough ladies with the right proven experience ... The market will reward a higher ROE with a higher rating, which then creates the currency and momentum to strive to meet other goals,” he said.Business consultant Luvuyo Mncanca said while there has been progress in advancing gender balance and appointing women to executive and board positions in the banking sector, more needs to be done to achieve gender balance and diversity targets.Mncanca also observed that while women hold many executive positions in the sector, strategic roles such as CEO and leadership of revenue-generating business units are still dominated by men.“A diversified team is important ...but I would guess that that is where the focus will thereafter return to,” said Kooyman.Business Times
