The hunt for a Chief Executive Officer at Standard Chartered Bank of Botswana is on but the bank has declined to say when it intends to fill the vacant position.
Michael Wiegand has been acting in that position since 31 December 2010. He replaced former CEO, David Cutting, who left the bank at the end of his contract.
“Standard Chartered Bank will announce a new permanent CEO when appropriate. As you would expect, we are unable to comment on recruitment process until they are complete,” said the bank’s Head of Corporate Affairs, Ithabeleng Letsunyane. The bank would not even hint if it intends to appoint a citizen for the position of CEO.
Under Wiegand, the bank introduced a salary advance scheme for its clients this year. The bank also partnered with Orange Botswana when they launched mobile money service for the unbanked population of just under 40 percent but who own mobile phones.
The CEO of a bank is, among others, tasked with the responsibility for operations and policy including how the bank handles business. Logically, the functions of the CEO in the context of Botswana would be defined and regulated by Bank of Botswana.
BoB’s spokesman, Andrew Sesinyi, had not responded to an enquiry from this publication by the time of going to press.
The policies and procedures govern operations such as lending requirements, mortgage requirements, opening an account, savings account rules, checking account rules, interest paid to customers and profit margins on money under the bank’s control.
The CEO is answerable to the customers, shareholder and the reserve bank for violations of these policies. The CEO has several additional levels of management. While the CEO is ultimately responsible for the overall success of the operations and policy of the bank, these additional managers will handle a specific aspect of the operations and report directly to the CEO.
