No other private bank in Africa can compete with Standard Bank, the region’s largest by assets and earnings. The Johannesburg-based lender has a dedicated on-the-ground wealth management presence in 15 countries, including Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya, employing 449 industry professionals.
Its wealth offering spans the full range of services from advisory to discretionary portfolio management. In 2021, 1,738 new wealth and investment clients came on board. At the end of 2021, Standard Bank boasted R122 billion ($7.7 billion) in total wealth and investment assets under management in discretionary portfolios.
“Over the years, we have faced many challenges, yet one thing has remained constant: our singular focus on developing deep and meaningful relationships with our clients and their families,” says Sanah Gumede, head of wealth and investment, South Africa, at Standard Bank.
The sophistication of its services is on a par with those at any big global wealth manager. Its Wealth Quotient offering enables the bank to identify how a client thinks and acts, then tailor a financial plan and investment strategy to suit their specific needs. The platform is designed to adapt to shifting needs and expectations at different stages of a customer’s investment life cycle.
That platform also dovetails neatly with Challenger, a holistic service that channels insights, guides and industry-related topics to individual clients. Challenger allows the bank to continuously train and up-skill private bankers and relationship managers, ensuring their knowledge of rules and norms is in line with relevant professional bodies.
Standard Bank’s academy empowers and educates the families of its clients, instilling in them the principles of investing, banking and lending, financial planning, leadership and philanthropy. The process starts young with Junior Leaders (aged 10 to 12 years) taking part in a one-day programme that starts the conversation about money.
Young Leaders (13 to 17 years) then learn the basics of financial management, with Future Leaders (18 to 24) offering an opportunity for young adults to deepen their understanding of the principles of wealth management. It is all part of the bank’s Family First philosophy: a driving force behind its determination to build sustainable succession plans that span current and future generations.
Standard Bank continues to add new layers to its digital offering. Power BI is a reporting tool that crunches data then channels it to relationship and wealth managers, helping them to better understand the needs of clients. E3 is a credit-limit system that delivers a consolidated view of a customer’s personal and business credit facilities across the banking group. Perform to Grow operates in the style of an online journal, enabling relationship managers to track conversations with clients through the year, while also tracking their own performance ratings.
For a second year, as part of its Phenomenal Family offering, Standard Bank pooled insight from global institutions, wealthy families and independent advisers. Over a five-week period, it broadcast 23 pre-recorded sessions to clients and external partners’ clients, garnering more than 34,500 views. The objective is to address the key trends and issues facing family firms and offices today, helping them preserve and growth their wealth over multiple generations and deliver lasting growth.
Over the years one thing has remained constant: our singular focus on developing deep and meaningful relationships with our clients
Sanah Gumede
Other notable services have been developed. Elite Wealth Management is a goals-driven service that views risk through the prism of a client’s long-term goals and chosen lifestyle. Through extensive cash-flow analysis, the bank gains a better understanding of a client’s saving and spending requirements. This allows it to build, in Standard Bank’s terminology, a ‘runway’ that lets the client navigate uncertain economic terrain and to invest in lower- or higher-risk assets, depending on their appetite.
“The context in which we operate, both globally and locally, is increasingly uncertain, complex and interconnected,” says Alan Wellburn, head of wealth management, Standard Bank Wealth and Investment, South Africa. “In this competitive environment, clients have more alternatives than ever before. Our differentiator in this regard is an advice process that provides clients with insights and an intellectual framework for making complex decisions, delivered by a team of experts.”
