Standard Bank Wealth & Investment stands head and shoulders above the wealth management competition in Africa. The South African bank is a regional powerhouse in the sector, with private banking offices in 14 African markets, including Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana, as well as the whole of southern Africa.
In 2022, the private bank onboarded around 1,650 new wealth and investment clients and saw the value of total wealth and investment assets under management in discretionary portfolios rise to R18 billion ($6.2 billion). Across wealth and investment services Standard Bank now employs more than 16,500 staff in Africa. Assets under management in 2022 rose 25% year on year in Kenya and by 8% in Nigeria.
A host of new services were unveiled during the awards period. At the top of the list is the bank’s award-winning Shyft app, a global wallet that lets customers send money, buy foreign exchange and shop internationally.
In 2022, the app recorded a 13% year-on-year rise in the number of Rand-denominated top-ups and saw the number of new users jump 47% on an annualized basis to 176,000. Last year, Standard Bank incorporated Shyft into its overall wealth offering and recently launched the service in Botswana – part of plans to drive the platform’s take-up across the continent. Much of this growth was due to improvements in its digital know-your-customer processes.
Standard Bank’s My360 service went from strength to strength. The service focuses primarily on serving mass- and super-affluent customers, enabling them to visualize their entire portfolios and to communicate better with relationship managers. It boasted more than 78,000 registered users at the end of 2022, up 17% year on year, with linked managed assets of R102 billion, up 67%.
Last year, Standard Bank incorporated My360 into its main banking app and has plans to roll it out in Ghana by the middle of 2023.
All of this helped to bolster the private bank’s bottom line. The wealth and investment business segment posted a 42% year-on-year increase in headline earnings last year, with net interest income up 60% on an annualized basis, which more than compensated for a slight fall in investment fee income. A strong rise in wealth management clients – up 9% – underscores the strength of the bank’s franchise.
Our clients are at the centre of everything we do and it is our priority to provide them with bespoke services, solutions and opportunities
Chris Browne
Standard Bank has won the award for Africa’s best bank for wealth management every year since 2016. Today, it offers everything from discretionary portfolio management and broking to family office services.
“Our clients are at the centre of everything we do and it is our priority to provide them with bespoke services, solutions and opportunities that truly enable them to achieve their goals and aspirations and leave a lasting legacy,” says Standard Bank’s head of wealth and investment Chris Browne.
Every year, it rolls out a new set of enhanced products. Its range now includes active and passive solutions, structured solutions to mitigate market risk, environmental, social and governance solutions and additional offshore wrappers.
