Meet the CIO | How Marijke Guest steered Nedbank through an IT crisis

When Nedbank realised early last year that its mammoth core banking overhaul and modernisation programme was going awry, it turned to Marijke Guest for help.
Guest, CIO of Nedbank Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB) and payments and a veteran of the financial services group, tells TechCentral’s Meet the CIO about how the bank realised it was headed for trouble, and what it took to get the project back on track and delivered – all in little under a year.
According to Nedbank, the project was thought to be 80% complete, but when it was reassessed in January 2024, it became clear that only around 20% of the actual scope had been delivered.
“Designs were incomplete,” the bank said. “Engineering practices were out of date. Key components, such as the liability rates engine, product lifecycle workflows and real-time processing, were either broken or unbuilt. The programme was years behind its intended outcomes, and the bank’s reputation was at stake.”
Guest, who has worked at Nedbank for the past 25 years, tells Meet the CIO’s Duncan McLeod about:
• When and why Nedbank first decided it needed to modernise its core banking systems and what the project would entail;
• What’s involved in an undertaking like this, and why there’s potential for things to go wrong that could lead to huge cost overruns – as has happened at other South African banks that have embarked on similar modernisation programmes;
• What Nedbank’s core banking modernisation project aimed to achieve, and why it was at risk of being derailed;
• What she did to get it back on track and motivate the IT teams involved;
• What it took to get everyone to start pulling in the same direction and ensure the project was delivered on time with zero reputational impact to the bank;
• How she coped with the immense pressure she and her teams were under from the board and top management to get the project done right, on time and within budget;
• What Nedbank can do now that it couldn’t do before, and how that positions it next to its rivals – both the traditional banks and the new digital bank challengers that have emerged in recent years; and
• What CIOs who are embarking on similarly complex IT projects can learn from Nedbank’s project – including the pitfalls they should watch out for, and what areas they should be careful not to neglect.
Guest was ultimately awarded Nedbank’s Chief Executive Award for her leadership of the project. No one involved in IT management should miss this fascinating discussion! TechCentral