SUSTAINABILITY
POLICY, POWER & PANDEMICS Mike Davis took over as CFO of Nedbank in October 2020, and having navigated the worst of the risks presented by Covid-19, is now focused on the bank’s green and sustainable future. By Georgina Guedes
M
ike Davis has had an interesting career trajectory – often navigating corporate mergers, but then finding his place and holding a significant role in the new entity. His journey of change and success got him to where he is today – in the role of CFO of Nedbank.
[Morathi]. Shortly thereafter she decided to pursue new opportunities. After 10 years at Nedbank, she felt she needed a change – and the opportunity to apply for a new role came up. Again, I was fortunate to be successful in securing the role of CFO. I don’t take this lightly, underestimate it or take it for granted.”
From articles at Deloitte’s Durban office, Mike moved to one of his biggest clients, NBS, in the risk space. He describes his time there as offering great experience, before the company went on to merge with Boland to become NBS Boland. This then merged with BOE Investment and Private Bank to become BOE Bank, which was then bought by Nedbank in 2002.
Mike acknowledges that he’s been fortunate to learn a lot and successfully navigate a number of big business changes in his career. “I have enjoyed the path that I’ve taken. I know it’s quite unusual with multiple mergers and acquisitions. I’ve always been close to the migration or the transition as we’ve reshaped the business after each of these mergers, which does create opportunity but also challenges. Things change all the time, and I have certainly been lucky to do well through most of these changes, and I’ve learnt a heck of a lot.”
This necessitated a move up to Johannesburg, but at the time, Mike’s wife Kerry was five months pregnant with their first child. He asked her what she thought they should do. “We’ve got to go,” she responded. So they relocated to Johannesburg, where they have stayed for the last 19 years. “I moved straight into 135 Rivonia Road, and with the acquisition, we were now merging Nedbank, Nedbank Investment Bank, Cape of Good Hope and all of the BOE Bank Brands and Businesses.” With the move to Joburg, Mike says as expected that there were multiple resources competing for the same role within Nedbank. “There was more than one Mike Davis competing for the asset and liability management role within the merger, but to cut a long story short, I was successful in securing the role. That then extended to incorporate capital management, which was then the start of an entity within the business called balance sheet management, which really sits between group finance, group treasury and group risk.” After a while, Mike ended up as head of balance sheet management, and moved onto group exco in 2015. “Subsequent to that, my role in balance sheet management shifted from reporting to the chief operating officer to the CFO, where I then reported to Raisibe 26
CFO MAGAZINE • CFO.CO.ZA
Covid-19 There has also been a lot to learn as the Covid-19 pandemic took hold in South Africa. As the country went into lockdown level 5 in March and April of 2020, Nedbank quickly enabled 77 percent of their campus staff to work from home. And then they faced the risk challenges that the pandemic brought. “The crisis played through a number of bank risk types – increased volatility, translated quite quickly into higher levels of market risk and operational risk, then into potential industry-wide liquidity risk followed by solvency considerations. Some of our clients felt the need to draw down on unutilised credit facilities in the short term, placing this cash back on deposit with the bank, which then had a consequential impact on our liquidity profile. As corporates or clients default, or the likelihood of default increases, this then migrates into increased credit risk and higher levels of impairments, which adversely impacts on bank solvency. In my position I was front and centre in dealing with all these risks as they emerged.”
