FCB has lost six senior officers in the past year, and a whistleblower report says First Citizens is in a "precarious position." Jason Julien resigned as group CEO on July 31, with the exit taking effect on August 31, 2026. The filing, submitted to the board in August 2026 under Whistleblower Policy #284, turns a staffing run-off into a governance problem at the top of the bank.
The seven-page report says the institution is "materially weaker" than it was in March. That is the sharper fact for customers, staff, and investors: the bank is not dealing with one gap, but with a sequence that has pulled senior oversight apart across risk, audit, finance, and the chief executive’s office.
March disclosure and six remedies
A protected disclosure sent to the board in March identified specific governance failures and set out six corrective actions. Five months later, the later report says no meaningful accountability measures had followed and that conditions had deteriorated beyond what the earlier filing anticipated. In practical terms, the earlier warning did not stay contained; it became a record of how quickly unresolved leadership gaps can widen.
The timeline shows why. Gerard Morton resigned as Chief Risk Officer in January. Neela Moonilal-Kissoon left in March as Deputy CEO, Operations and Administration. Donna Miller stepped down as Chief Internal Auditor in April, and Julia Maria Daniel filled that post two days later. Nesha Ramkhalawan left on July 7 after serving as acting Chief Risk Officer, and the Chief Financial Officer went on early retirement shortly after July 7.
Jason Julien and the vacancy trail
Jason Julien said he was not forced out when questioned by Guardian Media, but the report says "that characterisation is not shared inside the institution." Karen Darbasie had already retired as CEO in October 2025, which means the leadership turnover did not begin with Julien and did not end with his departure announcement.
July 2026 brought another move when Sana Ragbir was appointed to the deputy CEO, Revenue Generation position after the role had sat vacant from December 2025 until July 2026. The report says her promotion left the General Manager, Retail and Commercial Banking role vacant, while the head of Retail Banking job also remains unfilled and recruitment for that post has reportedly not been approved.
Shankar Bidaisee’s vacancy plan
Shankar Bidaisee said the bank "hopes to fill the vacancies soon." That line is doing more work than it sounds like, because the report says leadership vacancies have not attracted external candidates and qualified internal employees have not been promoted to fill the gaps. In a bank that is 60 per cent owned by the State, the unanswered question is not whether the turnover is real; it is whether the board will move fast enough to restore decision-making before the next vacancy spreads the same strain into another function.
The immediate pressure now sits on succession and control. If First Citizens wants to stop this from becoming a rolling governance failure, it has to turn the six corrective actions from March into actual appointments and accountability, not just another paper trail in August.
