Best Islamic bank 2025: Standard Bank Shari’ah Banking
Standard Bank Shari’ah Banking has emerged as the driving force behind the growth of Islamic finance in South Africa and is positioning itself as a strategic platform for Shariah-compliant banking across the continent.
In 2024, it achieved vastly improved financial results, launched market-shaping Islamic products and arranged landmark sukuk transactions, making it a deserving winner of Euromoney’s award for South Africa’s best Islamic bank.
The bank’s standout financial performance was underpinned by a 56% increase in assets year-on-year. Its corporate loan portfolio, including money-market placements, grew by R15.89 billion ($880 million), while retail client volumes rose 53% over the same period.
Product innovation was a key enabler, with launches across commercial property finance, asset leasing, money-market accounts and digital migration of business current accounts. Standard Bank Shari’ah Banking also expanded its asset management and structured finance offerings, rolling out new global market solutions late in 2023 and seeing strong corporate client uptake through 2024.
Its efforts to deepen Islamic liquidity pools were exemplified by its role in arranging the first sovereign rand-denominated sukuk issuance in Africa. The bank acted as joint lead arranger on the R20.3 billion National Treasury sukuk, which was 1.74x oversubscribed and attracted a diverse investor base. This landmark deal established a local Islamic fixed-income benchmark and is expected to catalyse sukuk issuance by South African state-owned enterprises, municipalities and corporates. The bank has also facilitated several sukuk structures in Nigeria.
Standard Bank’s commitment to enabling client growth through Shariah-compliant funding was further illustrated by a bespoke R100 million term facility for a South African consumer sector client, unlocking financing for a major acquisition. “On the back of that facility, we had numerous requests to support other corporate clients. They really want and need a different type of solution compared to what the normal Shariah landscape currently offers,” says Zanaria Khan, manager operations and distribution, Shari’ah Banking. The bank is now preparing to launch sub-Saharan Africa’s first Islamic business overdraft facility.
In retail and business banking, the bank enhanced digital onboarding and remote service capabilities through its Shari’ah Banking call centre and service desk. Its Power BI, Amazon Connect and Salesforce-powered support platform allows the bank to deliver personalised and scalable Shariah-compliant services, while upskilling frontline teams across voice, chat and email channels to improve responsiveness and accuracy.
Community engagement remained central to Standard Bank Shari’ah Banking’s strategy. The bank delivered financial literacy programmes across Islamic schools and partnered with the Islamic Medical Association of South Africa and the Association of Muslim Schools on healthcare and education access initiatives. Environmental stewardship was also reflected in its support for school water security infrastructure through borehole projects.
With its strong market share gains, product innovation, local and regional sukuk leadership, and community-oriented delivery model, Standard Bank Shari’ah Banking continues to exemplify what Islamic banking leadership looks like in Africa.
