Johannesburg — RAND Merchant Bank (RMB) said on Saturday Alan Pullinger would be its new CEO from next month.

Pullinger, who had been deputy CEO since April, will take over from Michael Pfaff.

FirstRand Bank CEO Sizwe Nxasana said the group was "delighted" with the appointment and that Pullinger had an "exceptional track record".

Pullinger, who has an MComm from the University of Witwatersrand, is also a chartered accountant. He completed his articles at Deloitte & Touche, where he became a partner in 1996. He joined RMB in 1998, in what was then the special projects division, to focus on property and structured finance.

The bank said that over the past 10 years he had "developed outstanding technical and strategic knowledge which makes him the ideal candidate to lead RMB".

It said Pullinger had been co-head of both structured finance and the investment banking division and sat on the RMB management board and investment committee.

Pfaff would remain at RMB until December and continue to sit on various committees and the RMB divisional board. The bank said he would also be "available as a general sounding board for Pullinger".

RMB said that during Pfaff's eight-year stint, the bank's profits increased from R700m to R5,2bn last year.

The bank said it would show "continued strong profitability in the current year", but absolute profits would be lower than last year's due to the high base effect of having an "exceptional" increase in profits in that year.

Profits increased 80% last year.

RMB said that during Pfaff's tenure, the bank's reputation had benefited from numerous awards and accolades, including being rated "consistently as the top investment bank in various categories of the PriceWaterhouseCoopers banking survey".

It said it was voted as the Deloitte best company to work for a number of times. RMB also received the Euromoney 2008 award for excellence for the best investment bank in SA.

Pullinger said he was "confident that with the support and dedication" of staff, the bank would continue with its "strong track record".