FNB, the retail banking flagship of FirstRand, has appointed Lytania Johnson as its new chief executive officer replacing Harry Kellan who will take early retirement at the end of 2026 after two years in the role — a leadership transition that forms part of the most significant structural overhaul of FNB’s operating model in recent years.
All changes take effect on 1 April 2026 and have received the necessary regulatory approval. Johnson, who has been with FNB for 25 years and has led its personal banking segment for the past three years, will assume the dual role of FNB chief executive and head of a newly created retail and business banking segment — known internally as RBB — which replaces the existing retail and commercial construct. The RBB segment will service entry-level to middle-income individuals and small and medium-sized enterprises, a customer base that sits at the core of FNB’s franchise and represents the most contested segment of the South African retail banking market.
The restructuring creates three distinct units beneath the FNB umbrella: the RBB segment under Johnson; a standalone private banking and wealth management division that remains under Sizwe Nxedlana, who has led it since 2023; and a commercial and corporate bank under Muneer Ismail, which absorbs the enterprise and public sector sub-segments from the old commercial division. The reconfiguration is designed to sharpen accountability and reduce the complexity that had built up under the previous multi-layered segment model. FirstRand also announced the appointment of Gert Kruger as group chief operating officer, with Emma Mer moving into Kruger’s previous role as group chief risk officer.
Kellan leaves having delivered two headline achievements during his tenure. FNB crossed the R1 trillion mark in customer deposits for the first time under his watch and surpassed 10 million customers, milestones that FirstRand attributed directly to the structural simplification work Kellan prioritised from the moment he took the role. The South African retail banking operation delivered 10% growth in pre-tax profits during his tenure, while the overall FNB franchise lifted its return on equity to 41% — a level that positions FNB as one of the highest-returning retail banks in the country. Kellan, who joined FirstRand in 2005 and served a decade as group chief financial officer before moving to the FNB chief executive role in April 2024, said the restructuring was the direct product of the simplification strategy he set in motion when he took charge. FirstRand group chief executive Mary Vilakazi credited Kellan for leaving the business in a position where structural change could be executed with minimum disruption.
Johnson’s appointment reflects a deliberate preference for continuity over disruption at a moment when FNB’s competitive environment is intensifying. Vilakazi said the group was confident the new structure would reduce complexity, improve chief executive accountability, and ensure ongoing execution of growth strategies — a formulation that signals FirstRand intends to build on Kellan’s platform rather than change direction. Johnson’s dual mandate — running both FNB and the new RBB segment simultaneously — is an unusually expansive brief for a new chief executive, and signals the degree of institutional confidence FirstRand’s leadership has placed in her. FNB competes directly with Standard Bank, Absa and Nedbank for the mass retail and SME banking market, a segment that is increasingly contested by digital challengers including TymeBank and Discovery Bank.