Hannes Wessels, a former global banking executive of HSBC South Africa, has been appointed by cryptocurrency exchange Binance to manage its operations in South Africa.
Wessels has worked for HSBC for 22 years, and since 2010, he has held top executive positions.
Wessels will lead the development of business plans and spearhead strategic initiatives for Binance in South Africa, according to the announcement.
Citing a Finder survey conducted with Google, crypto ownership in South Africa is at 5.2 million which is 10% of the population. Binance is working towards steadily increasing this figure through different strategies.
Wessels commented about his new appointment saying, “I am excited to join Binance at a time when crypto adoption is still in its infancy in South Africa and look forward to playing a leading role in Binance’s growth strategy in South Africa.”
Wessels oversaw HSBC’s corporate and investment banking operations in South Africa prior to joining Binance.
This included the payments and cash management industry, which was recognized as South Africa’s top payments firm by Euromoney in 2021.
He also served as the Chairman of the bank’s employment equity committee and was a member of the bank’s executive committee in South Africa.
Binance is currently the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume.