Tyrone Naidoo

The time for banks to change from being service providers to platform providers is now. This is just one of the many revolutionary changes Tyrone Naidoo predicts for the future of corporate and investment banking. Tyrone is also part of RMB’s Class Of family – an opportunity he hopes to be the enabler of many exciting things to come on a personal and professional level.

Tyrone is no newcomer to RMB. His first encounter with RMB was when he enrolled for the annual RMB Winter School in 2011. Having just completed his Electrical Engineering degree at Wits he was still contemplating the prospect of starting his Masters, that was, until he met the former Head of Business Technology at RMB, Sabir Munshi. Sabir convinced him to try his hand at business technology in the bank, and the rest, as they say in the classics, is history.

Ongoing learning

Tyrone worked in the business process management team the following year where he was involved with the centralising of audit confirmations between corporate banking, investment banking, KYC and the internal transfer system. He thrived in this environment where, as he put it, he “had the licence to ask as many questions as he possibly could.” 

Being part of the Graduate Programme, he was ready for his next rotation in the bank. He moved to the Front Office Technology team in Global Markets where he worked on the Exotic Derivatives platform where he wrote, among others, a computation cluster that enabled multiple new deals. It was clear that Tyrone was not going to stop learning there, and that he was keen to broaden his horizons to learn more about corporate and investment banking.

Bye-bye stereotypes

When the opportunity to join the RMB Class Of Programme became available, Tyrone realised that this was one door that he simply had to open. If anything, the unconventional nature of the Class Of Programme was the perfect fit for his out-of-the-ordinary profile. He is quick to point out that he does not fit the stereotypical image of a South African Indian male. For one, he does not come from Durban, he does not follow soccer and, no, he does not own a Subaru! Jokes aside, the unstructured nature of the Class Of Programme opened up another door for Tyrone to explore his many hidden talents.

The world of banking will never be the same

The financial services industry at large faces intense pressure to increase efficiencies and reduce costs while delivering next-generation digital services. When considering what the future of banking and, in turn, what the future bankers will look like, Tyrone cannot help but see the need for the convergence between finance and technology skills.

Tyrone loves the fact that the Class Of Programme is a big enabler for abstract thinking in the bank and that he is now in an environment where he meets great minds and great innovators who can make a big difference to the banking system and in society in general.

“I want to help people do more – and be an enabler to help them achieve great things. I want to be the bridge between business and technology” – that is the type of legacy that I want to leave behind one day.