African Bank Investments Limited (Abil) – which was placed under curatorship last year – has appointed former Absa executive, Louis von Zeuner, as chairman designate of the struggling bank, it emerged on Tuesday.

When the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) placed Abil under curatorship after the bank warned it would report losses amounting to R6.4 billion ($544.8 million), the bank was divided into two – the Bad Bank and Good Bank.

According to Moneyweb, Von Zeuner will be named chairman after a new CEO for the bank has been appointed and a board constituted.

These appointments will also have to be announced first to the SARB and the consortium underwriting Abil’s bailout, Moneyweb reported.

Tom Winterboer, formerly a senior banking analyst at auditing firm PwC, was appointed curator of Abil on August 10 last year. This was a couple of days after the bank had issued a trading update on August 6, saying it needed at least R8.5 billion ($723.6 million) to save the bank from a sea of bad debts.