Au revoir Ian Leyenaar

FNB Namibia recently announced that its Chief Executive Officer, Ian Leyenaar will resign after leading the bank for a year. Leyenaar was appointed to spearhead FNB in February 2013. The 57 year old held several directorships including; FNB Namibia Holdings Limited, First National Bank of Namibia, FNB Insurance Brokers, and FNB Trust Services.
Sarel van Zyl has subsequently been appointed to succeed as an Executive Director effective 1 December 2014.
Said FNB Holdings in a statement, “Mr. Ian JM Leyenaar will resign as Executive Director on the FNB Namibia Holdings Limited boards and subsidiary boards with effect from 1 December 2014. Mr. Leyenaar will remain with FNB Namibia during a transition period ending in December 2014.”

Under Leyenaar’s management, FNB Namibia Holdings reported a profit before tax passing the billion dollar mark to N$1.1 billion while earnings per share shot through the roof, increasing to 298 cents or 30% on the previous year. Leyenaar and his team also witnessed a growth in the retail segment. FNB Namibia recorded a 22% growth in lifestyle accounts, 18%growth in transactional volumes, 14% in net advances, and 17% growth in deposits while growing the branch network and opening an additional 3 branches.
Leyenaar’s tenure as FNB boss has also seen the bank effectively embrace technology and allowed for the introduction of card-less cash withdrawals from FNB Namibia ATMs, and the introduction of EMV chip-based credit and debit cards that attempt to reduce fraud and card-cloning.