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I tell Amol Prabhu that, in my very personal experience, every immigrant family has a five-year plan. Just like Stalin.
The last bit is just for comic effect, because Amol is none other than the CEO of Barclays South Africa and the head of its private bank. He knows something of this pattern, as his own parents left Mumbai for England when he was just one, intending to stay for five years. More than four decades later, they are still there.
When he moved to Johannesburg with his wife and two-year-old son, the plan was similarly provisional: two years, perhaps four at most.
“We love this country, we love the people, and the business has been fantastic,” he says. “It has been a real game-changer for us.” So he too appears to have slipped into the seemingly inevitable pushing-back-the-departure-date category.
We have met for lunch at the pumping Doppio Bistrot in Nine Yards, the new Rosebank precinct where glassy office buildings open onto gardens and small lakes. It is an apt setting for a man whose work is largely about building bridges: between South Africa and global capital, between generations of a family, and, increasingly, between old institutions and an uncertain technological future.
While part of life is about knowing who you are, it is also about knowing which environment is right for you and where you will flourish
— Amol Prabhu, CEO of Barclays South Afrixa
Barclays is more than 300 years old — “older than the United States”, he points out with some satisfaction.
He grew up in Northampton, in “classic Middle England”, surrounded by rolling countryside and a close family that combined Indian traditions with British life. They celebrated Diwali and Christmas. His parents, both doctors, placed enormous value on education, sacrificing financially to send Amol and his sister to private schools.
“The bank account used to go to zero at the end of every quarter when they paid the school fees,” he says. “They came to the UK as first-generation immigrants. They were highly qualified, but the roles they were doing were below their qualifications. While they were telling us you have to put in the hard yards in life, they were walking the talk.”
He studied law at Bristol, though initially he disliked the course enough to question whether he had made the right decision in opting for it. His trajectory changed when a professor encouraged him to apply for vacation placements at large international law firms. The application deadlines had passed, but the professor quietly telephoned former students and secured Prabhu several opportunities.
“I loved it,” he says. “It was a game-changer because I realised international law and international finance were incredibly interesting.”
A scholarship took him to Leuven in Belgium, where he studied within the highly prestigious Erasmus Programme, before he returned to Bristol, graduated with a first-class degree, trained at Linklaters, and completed a master’s degree in law and finance at Cambridge.
A secondment to JPMorgan’s trading floor produced another moment of recognition.
“I walked into that bank and knew immediately I should work in a bank,” he says. “While part of life is about knowing who you are, it is also about knowing which environment is right for you and where you will flourish.”
He joined Barclays during a period of aggressive investment-bank expansion and spent years flying between global financial centres, initially in a distinctly junior capacity.
“I literally carried the bags,” he says, laughing. “I would walk into a meeting and say, ‘Good morning.’ I wouldn’t speak for the whole meeting because other people who actually knew something were speaking. I would take notes, say goodbye, follow up on everything, and then do it all again.”
His apprenticeship was relentless. At times, he might be working on transactions in Ghana, Russia and Dubai simultaneously, arriving at his desk before 8am and considering any departure before midnight an early night.
“Not great for the dating life,” he concedes, though Barclays eventually delivered on that front too. He met his wife while living in Dubai.
Africa increasingly became the focus of his work. When Barclays announced its separation from Absa in 2016, Amol began developing a case for why the British bank should retain a meaningful African presence.
The board approved the strategy, and Prabhu was sent to South Africa to implement it.
“I arrived here as employee number one on the continent. I was CEO, PA, COO and HR. It was effectively a start-up inside a 300-year-old bank.”
When I see the work the people I meet in the private bank have done to build businesses here and elsewhere on the continent, I sit back in awe
His affection for South Africa is both professional and deeply personal. He admires the strength of the private sector, the sophistication of local businesses, and the pioneer spirit of the entrepreneurs who have built companies across sectors and borders.
“When I see the work the people I meet in the private bank have done to build businesses here and elsewhere on the continent, I sit back in awe. They saw an opportunity, backed themselves, and built something over the decades.”
Then there is Johannesburg’s legendary social generosity. Soon after his son began school, a father Amol barely knew invited the family to a Sunday braai. He wondered whether the invitation was mere politeness, but a WhatsApp with the address duly arrived before he had finished debating the matter with his wife.
“We arrived at 2pm. By 8pm, we were still there, and I was thinking, ‘Shouldn’t we be leaving?’ But then the father was asking, ‘Have you brought your son’s pyjamas?’ South African hospitality, particularly in Joburg, is second to none. People are decent, warm, friendly and fun.”
Our conversation turns from global capital to the intimate meaning of money. Amol believes technology and AI will improve security, due diligence and the efficiency of banking — but cannot replace trusted human counsel.
“Money is far more than stock market returns and spreadsheets,” he says. “Money is about legacy and responsibility. It can be an incredibly positive force if it is thought about in the right way, but it can also be incredibly destructive.”
He has seen families split by inheritance disputes and believes difficult conversations must take place before decisions become crises. Private banking, he says, often begins not with products, but with fundamental questions: What is the money for? Is it to be passed to the next generation, donated or invested, or divided among all three?
Sunday Times Lifestyle
