Old Mutual CEO announces early retirement

Old Mutual Group CEO and managing director Iain Williamson, one of the drivers behind its Capitec rival OM Bank, has announced that he will retire early and step down on 31 August 2025.

Williamson submitted his early retirement request after 32 years of service to Old Mutual, the last five of which he served as CEO. Old Mutual extended its gratitude to the outgoing CEO for his service.

“He will leave Old Mutual a stronger, more resilient, and more innovative company that is ideally positioned to grow and thrive into the future,” it said.

“Iain will work with the Old Mutual board and his successor, upon their appointment, to ensure a smooth and managed handover.”

The company’s board has embarked on identifying a suitable replacement. It is considering internal and external candidates.

Old Mutual is approaching the launch date of its Capitec rival OM Bank, a move the company embarked upon under Williamson’s leadership.

OM Bank targets the upper mass market and lower affluent customers, and it will compete directly with Capitec.

OM Bank received regulatory approval in April 2024, and it recently received the go-ahead to launch from the South African Reserve Bank’s Prudential Authority.

It targets a limited soft launch during the second and third quarters of 2025, followed by a public launch towards the end of the year.

Old Mutual believes that adding transactional banking capabilities will enable regular customer interaction.

It also wants to improve its customer-centric approach through OM Bank. Williamson previously noted that the approach had accelerated the value of new business by 37% in 2023.

OM Bank is built on 10x Banking’s cloud technology, which the company claims will enable it to offer affordable personalised and flexible banking services.

It also believes that accepting retail deposits through OM Bank will provide an affordable funding source.

The recent approval from the Prudential Authority came with it approving the appointment of Clarence Nethengwe as CEO.

OM Bank announced his appointment in September 2024 and targeted 1 November 2024 as the date he’d take over CEO responsibilities. However, it noted that this was subject to regulatory approval.

Nethengwe says there is a unique opportunity for OM Bank to bring change to the banking industry.

“Our vision for OM Bank is to ensure that customers are not only able to access transparent and personalised financial services and tools but, more importantly, to partner with them so that these tools improve access to banking and credit,” he said.

“At OM Bank, everyone will be treated equally because what distinguishes customers is what they want from their bank, not their status or financial muscle.”

Old Mutual says the bank will attract already-“banked” and unbanked customers in the country.

“The ‘banked’ are, in many ways, underserved or underbanked, as they lack access to banking services beyond basic transactional facilities,” it said.

“That is the main problem we’ve set ourselves to solve.”

The CEO position has been vacant since 31 October 2024 after the departure of former OM Bank-Build CEO Rolf Eichweber and COO Roydan Volans.

Echweber and Volans had agreed to remain in their respective roles until that date to ensure a smooth leadership transition. OM Bank had announced their resignation in September 2024.