From one bank to another?

● Daniel Mminele’s retirement as deputy governor at the Reserve Bank has reignited speculation that he may be headed to a top job in the financial services sector.

Mminele, 54, has been mooted before as a possible successor to Maria Ramos, who resigned as Absa CEO earlier this year. He was one of a select number of candidates for the job, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg in February.

Absa declined to comment, saying only that it will announce its new CEO by the time it reports its half-year results in August. Mminele could not be reached for comment.

The bank’s chair, Wendy Lucas-Bull, told Business Times earlier this month that the candidates Absa was looking at would likely take the reins only next year after serving a cooling-off period.

Mminele will begin a six-month coolingoff period tomorrow, when his retirement starts.

Despite Mminele having made a good impression, some analysts believe it’s unlikely that he will be offered a job at the helm of one of SA’s biggest banks.

Asief Mohamed, chief investment officer at Aeon Investment Management, said Mminele had been “exceptionally good” at his job at the central bank.

Jaap Meijer, MD and head of equity research at Arqaam Capital, and his colleague Etienne de Kock, an equity research analyst, said Mminele did not fit their company’s vision of the kind of person Absa requires for its new strategy.

An analyst who did not want to be named said Mminele’s banking experience was a plus and he had a good track record at the Bank, which could bode well for him at Absa.