ABSA says Arrie Rautenbach's early exit as CEO a personal decision

JOHANNESBURG - Commercial bank ABSA has pinned the early exit of its CEO Arrie Rautenbach to a personal decision by the executive.

This comes amid speculation about the announcement that Rautenbach will retire in October and then serve a six-month cooling period until April next year.

He's the fourth CEO at the helm in as many years.

Some reports allege Rautenbach was pushed out amid internal squabbles and claims of "governance violations and missteps".

ABSA's group financial director, Deon Raju, denied any knowledge of this.

"I don’t think we can put it down to events. We’ve seen all the press reports but none of this are things we are privy to. Like we said, he and the board agreed that it was the right time to take early retirement."