Standard Bank has a 150 year history in South Africa and started building a franchise in the Rest of Africa in the early 1990s. We currently operate in 18 countries on the African continent, including South Africa, as well as in other selected emerging markets.
Our strategy is to build the leading African financial services organisation using all our competitive advantages to the full. We will also connect other selected emerging markets to Africa and to each other, applying our sector expertise, particularly in natural resources, globally. Our key differentiator is people who are passionate about our strategy wherever in the world they are based.
We organise ourselves as three business units but present ourselves as one. Our three main pillars of business are Personal & Business Banking, Corporate & Investment Banking, and Wealth – Liberty.
We employ approximately 49 000 people (including Liberty) across all geographies. Standard Bank’s market capitalisation at 31 December 2012 was R191 billion (approximately $23 billion). Standard Bank has 1248 branches, including loan centres, and 8464 ATMs on the African continent.
The strategic partnership of the two largest banks in Africa and China, Standard Bank Group and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC took a 20% stake in Standard Bank Group in 2008), will continue to generate significant cooperation benefits.
Corporate social investments(CSI)
Our CSI initiatives are aimed at achieving and sustaining positive social development of the communities we operate in. Through various community interventions, our effective community re-investment will further reinforce our values and achieve our business objectives.
Standard Bank Group's Corporate Social Investment expenditure is funded by the annual allocation of not less than one percent of prior year after-tax income from its South African operations. Of this allocation, at least half a percent is specifically committed to programmes in terms of the charter and it excludes sponsorships and employee involvement initiatives.
