STANDARD BANK: The Best Bank in Africa, Officially

“We are a proudly African, integrated financial services group with compelling competitive advantages,” SBG explains, “providing banking, insurance, investment as well as non-financial complementary solutions that drive the financial wellbeing of our clients at every stage of their financial journey.

“Our differentiator,” it continues, “is our long-term commitment to Africa, our home, underpinned by a heritage of over 150 years on the continent.”

Pushing economic growth has been a pursuit which has extended across the African continent and beyond through the group’s multiple divisions. “As a connected, real economy bank, our insight and experience helps unlock opportunities and mitigate risk for our broad range of clients,” SBG underlines. “Standard Bank has a proud history of serving clients and supporting economic development across Africa as the largest financial services group on the continent.”

SIMPLY AFRICA’S BEST

Standard Bank operates in more than 20 countries in Africa and abroad, a worldwide presence consisting of an integrated suite of end-to-end wealth management services and banking solutions. Fittingly, it was the prestigious Global Finance that bestowed upon Standard Bank Group the ultimate honour of best bank in Africa in the 28th annual World’s Best Banks listing, as well as in both South Africa and Uganda, individually.

Performance over the year at hand is a major factor in consideration of the worthy winners, alongside multitude other criteria including reputation, management excellence and leadership in digital transformation and corporate citizenship.

“To be recognised in this way by Global Finance is a great honour for the Standard Bank Group,” enthused CEO Sim Tshabalala. “Over the past year we have had to work even harder than usual to support our employees, clients and communities during difficult circumstances. I’m delighted to accept this award in grateful recognition of the excellent work done by my dedicated and resilient colleagues throughout our business.

“These awards are testament to the trust placed in us by our clients, and as we look forward towards 2022, we’re focused on creating more solutions for our clients across Africa and helping them achieve their goals.” 

Standard Bank’s deep understanding of the continent, the product of its more than 150 years of business in Africa, was acknowledged as central to its performance during the Covid-19 pandemic and key initiatives underway in its operational markets, such as its OneFarm platform. Highlighted for specific praise, OneFarm Share has partnered with HelloChoice, a digital agri-trade platform, and FoodForward, a beneficiary network, to match excess produce from farmers with certified food recipients.

As a result, food is procured at a reduced cost or donated by farmers and then provided to beneficiary organisations, allowing OneFarm to have already provided six million meals to people across South Africa.

Global Finance also singled out Standard Bank’s partnership with Salesforce for praise, its initiative to power the group’s digital platform and service the bank’s ecosystem of clients. “The partnership between Standard Bank and Salesforce will allow both organisations to co-create bespoke solutions for clients,” SBG detailed, “also enabling them to create solutions themselves by partnering with the Group’s service providers and vendors.”

STRATEGY DRIVES TRANSFORMATION

The innovative bent of the business saw Standard Bank again among the big winners, this time at the 2021 World’s Best Digital Banks Awards in Africa, selected for multiple awards across seven categories including Best Consumer Digital Bank in South Africa and Best Corporate/Institutional Digital Bank in Africa for both Trade Finance Services and for SME Banking.

“Over the past few years, Standard Bank has made significant structural changes to better serve clients,” the group stated, and it has paid off in multiple areas including the strength of its strategy for attracting and servicing digital customers, breadth of product offerings and evidence of tangible benefits gained from digital initiatives.

“These shifts have allowed the Group to realise a more seamless delivery of financial services to its diverse customer base, reduce time and costs, and allow the organisation to innovate more quickly and efficiently.” The Covid-19 pandemic has only served to accelerate the rate of this change, and despite the obvious challenges, the crisis has presented numerous opportunities to problem solve, be creative and be innovative.

“With the global pandemic forcing people to conduct their personal and professional banking activities from their phones, tablets and computers, digital banking took on an importance and prevalence far beyond anything that had come before,” said Joseph Giarraputo, publisher and editorial director of Global Finance.

“We will continue leveraging our scale advantages and strengths to defend and grow our current position in the market, while accelerating toward our 2025 ambition of becoming a client-centric, digitally-enabled platform business,” responded Adrian Vermooten, Chief Innovation Officer at Standard Bank Group. “We are creating new solutions and new partnerships to serve our clients better and grow our revenues across Africa, our home. These awards are testament to the excellent leadership within the organisation and our incredibly committed employees who have been walking this digitisation journey with us.”

FUTURE-READY

“The financial world is evolving rapidly,” Tshabalala says, “and we are excited about the opportunity that this presents to the group. We are focused on ensuring that we remain relevant by offering more of the services and solutions that our clients need.” Accelerating the execution of its strategy to become future-ready, SBG has already made significant internal structural changes, with the revised segments serving clients using all the preferred physical and digital channels.

The next phase of the existing business strategy will build on the substantial investments already made by the Group into employee development, digital technologies, infrastructure upgrades and strategic partnerships in recent years. “Transforming Standard Bank Group from a traditional financial institution to one that is defined by modern innovation will enable it to deliver on the promises made to help Africa grow, develop and fulfil its potential,” SGB declares.

It seems to be working, with the interim results for 2021 reflecting a recovery in client activity, an improved outlook and the strong momentum in the underlying business. Headline earnings were up 52%, while return on equity (ROE) rose from 8.5% to 12.9%. The group’s capital position also remained robust, with a common equity tier 1 capital adequacy (CET1) ratio of 13.5%.

“The first six months of 2021 were another exceptionally difficult period for many of our clients, staff and stakeholders,” commented Tshabalala, “but we are now hopeful that the worst phase of the pandemic is behind us.

“Our underlying business has strong momentum and, relative to this time last year, we have seen a recovery in client activity, an improved outlook and lower impairment charges. The global backdrop is expected to remain favourable, supported by sustained low interest rates, continued fiscal stimulus and consumer demand. We look forward to building on the progress we have made in 1H21 and remain steadfast in delivering on our purpose.”