Standard Bank Shari’ah Banking has risen from a late entrant in South Africa’s Islamic finance market to the region’s best Islamic bank, reflecting a strategy built around innovation, disciplined governance and a clear reading of Africa’s long-term demographic and capital-flow trends.
Launched in 2016, the business has positioned itself not simply as a provider of Shariah-compliant alternatives but as a platform for developing new Islamic finance solutions tailored to African retail, business and corporate banking needs. Since its inception, it has launched 21 products and services, ranging from savings and investment solutions to commercial asset finance, fiduciary services, cash management and foreign exchange products.
That emphasis on innovation became particularly visible in 2025. Standard Bank launched Sub-Saharan Africa’s first Shariah-compliant business overdraft facility, designed to solve a longstanding problem for Muslim entrepreneurs seeking working capital without resorting to conventional interest-bearing finance. The bank also continued expanding its Shariah-compliant term-finance capabilities, building on a landmark ZAR100 million corporate term facility initially arranged in 2023 and extended in 2025 to support acquisition-led growth for a South African consumer-sector client.
“We wanted to differentiate ourselves through innovation,” says Mohammed Ameen Hassen, founder and head of Standard Bank Shari’ah Banking. “We want to go and build product and service in that white space where the competitors are not playing.”
That approach is increasingly tied to Standard Bank’s broader Africa strategy. The bank sees Islamic finance as both a financial inclusion tool and a mechanism for connecting African borrowers with deep pools of Shariah-compliant liquidity in the Gulf and Southeast Asia. As sovereigns and corporates across Africa seek alternative funding pools for infrastructure, fiscal and growth financing, Standard Bank is positioning its Islamic banking franchise to help facilitate those capital flows into the continent.
We wanted to differentiate ourselves through innovation. We want to go and build product and service in that white space where the competitors are not playing
Mohammed Ameen Hassen
This positioning was reflected in Standard Bank’s role in South Africa’s landmark ZAR20.4 billion sovereign sukuk issuance. Acting alongside Africa Rising Capital, the bank helped broaden participation from Shariah-focused investors while ensuring compliance oversight through its Shari’ah Advisory Council. The transaction not only diversified South Africa’s funding base but also created a template for future sukuk issuance by state-owned enterprises and other African borrowers.
The bank has also expanded its Islamic finance footprint beyond South Africa. In Nigeria, it implemented three sukuk structures, while its wealth and investment platform continued to develop through partnerships with Melville Douglas and STANLIB. Offerings span domestic and offshore investments, actively managed Shariah funds, multi-asset balanced portfolios, trusts and estate-planning solutions.
Underlying this growth is a scalable operating model. Rather than building a large standalone Islamic bank, Standard Bank embedded Shariah capability across its wider franchise. Conventional branch, sales and service teams are trained to originate and support Islamic banking customers, allowing the unit to maintain a lean specialist structure while leveraging the group’s extensive African distribution network.
Digital capability also continued to improve during the review period. The majority of personal-banking origination is now digitally enabled, while the bank has enhanced onboarding and servicing through integrated app functionality, a dedicated Shariah call centre and the use of technology platforms, including Salesforce, Amazon Connect and Power BI.
The commercial momentum has been significant. By December 2024, Standard Bank Shari’ah Banking reported 233% year-on-year asset growth, liabilities growth of 24%, a 39% increase in new retail clients and a 32% increase in new corporate clients.
Crucially, however, Standard Bank’s achievement lies not only in growth metrics but in helping establish Islamic finance as an increasingly relevant component of Africa’s broader banking and capital markets landscape.
