Africa-Press – Namibia. NEDBANK Namibia has appointed Stuart Main as the new executive for treasury.
Main, who joined Nedbank five years ago, will be responsible for leading the treasury department, whose primary function is to raise funding from institutional investors and manage the bank’s liquid assets.
He was educated at the University of Cape Town and the University of South Africa. Before his promotion, Main worked as head of treasury funding and his duties included managing the bank’s liquidity, cost of funding, excess liquid assets, as well as regulatory and bank limits.
His duties included formulating strategies to achieve the bank’s targets and overseeing wholesale investor relationships. The new treasury head says he applied for the position because it relates to his work experience in financial markets.
Prior to joining Nedbank, his work within the financial services industry included positions such as bond and equity trader, head of foreign exchange and fixed income trading and research analyst and trading.
When he joined Nedbank in 2016, he held the position of senior dealer: liquidity and portfolio management. “I have had a very positive experience since joining in 2016, partaking in the opportunity to see the bank grow and develop over the past five years,” he says.
Commenting on the overview of his responsibilities, Main says: “I would like to bring a touch of New York to Windhoek.” The industry faces challenges, including issues concerning regulations, says Main, who believes the cost of regulation in the financial sector is necessary.
“The pandemic fast-tracked the development of digital channels, so in my opinion technology has not really disrupted the banking industry but has helped improve efficiency in the sector. If the pandemic has taught us anything, it should be that you must be adaptive to a rapidly changing business environment,” he notes.
There has also been a lack of investment in sustainable development in recent years, however, the country’s economic challenges and investments in green schemes are getting more attention, and Main believes Namibia’s green energy future looks very bright.
“I think in a corporate space it would be pleasant to see other companies coming to the party in terms of their carbon footprint. Nedbank is leading the way in this space with initiatives such as the bank’s new campus building.”
He says his views are aligned to those of Nedbank’s which calls for a high-performance culture. He emphasises the drive towards target performance excellence, a culture of learning, purpose and direction, alignment and focus, care towards stakeholders and ensuring there are standardised processes and systems for a proper workflow. It is to this that he attributes his winning of various staff awards during his time at Nedbank, including the top four achiever in 2018, the MD award in 2018 and being part of the top sales team in 2020.
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