SOUTH AFRICAN INDEX
THE PEOPLE SHAPING SOUTH AFRICA
Menu
Business · Living

GT Ferreira

Banker and entrepreneur

By South African Index Editorial Desk · Published

Illustrative placeholder portrait; this is not a photograph of the person.
Illustrative placeholder; no verified photograph available.: Domdomegg · Source · CC0 1.0. Resized and converted to WebP for this site.

GT Ferreira co-founded the 1977 financial business that became Rand Merchant Bank with Laurie Dippenaar and Paul Harris and later served as the first chairman of FirstRand. [1][3]

Biography

RMB traces its origin to a structuring house founded in 1977 by Ferreira, Dippenaar and Harris with R10,000 in capital. [1]

FirstRand’s later corporate account identifies Ferreira and Dippenaar as founders of FirstRand and Harris as the third member of the founding trio. [2]

Ferreira chaired FirstRand from its inception in 1998 until November 2008. That decade-long chairmanship connected the founding group to the institutional development of the bank holding company. [3]

Key contributions

Co-founded the business that evolved into Rand Merchant Bank. [1]

Served as FirstRand chairman from the group’s inception until 2008. [3]

Career timeline

  1. Co-founded the precursor to RMB with Laurie Dippenaar and Paul Harris. [1]

  2. Became chairman of FirstRand at its inception. [3]

  3. Stepped down as FirstRand chairman in November. [3]

Associated organisations

Sources

  1. Rand Merchant Bank, Sustainability Report 2010: Corporate profile, 2010-06-30. Original source. Accessed 2026-09-25. ↩
  2. FirstRand, Chairman’s report 2018, 2018-06-30. Original source. Accessed 2026-09-25. ↩
  3. FirstRand, Chairman’s statement 2009, 2009-06-30. Original source. Accessed 2026-09-25. ↩