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Our purpose is to drive Africa’s growth. We are committed to
being more than a provider of financial products and services –
we are a catalyst for economic change in our countries of
operation and we make life better for our fellow Africans by
doing the right business the right way.
On this page you will find an overview of Standard Bank and why
we believe in ‘reporting to society’.
Download a full version of Reporting to Society 2018
An account of our social, economic and environmental impacts and how these contribute to our sustainability and ability to achieve our purpose. It includes our environmental, social and governance report, and Standard Bank South Africa’s transformation report.
We are a financial services organisation in, for and across Africa.
We operate in 20 African countries and are headquartered in
Johannesburg. Our primary listing is on the Johannesburg
Stock Exchange (JSE) in South Africa, with a secondary listing
in Namibia. Subsidiary banks are listed on exchanges in Kenya,
Malawi, Nigeria and Uganda.
Download a full version of Reporting to Society 2018
An account of our social, economic and environmental impacts and how these contribute to our sustainability and ability to achieve our purpose. It includes our environmental, social and governance report, and Standard Bank South Africa’s transformation report.
We publish several reports to provide our stakeholders with the information they need to assess our performance.
Our annual integrated report, our primary report, provides a holistic and material assessment of our ability to create value over time. It considers the issues material to maintaining the commercial viability and social relevance required to achieve our strategy in the medium to long term, and covers both our financial performance and material non-financial
information.
Our reporting to society platform aims to communicate with a broad group of stakeholders about how we impact on the societies, economies and environments in which we operate.
Download a full version of Reporting to Society 2018
An account of our social, economic and environmental impacts and how these contribute to our sustainability and ability to achieve our purpose. It includes our environmental, social and governance report, and Standard Bank South Africa’s transformation report.
Standard Bank is driven by our purpose: ‘Africa is our home,
we drive her growth.’ We are an African financial services
organisation with a clear understanding of the challenges and
opportunities in our countries of operation. We see it as our
core job to develop commercially sound ways to address these
challenges, thereby accelerating economic growth and human
development and making a better life for our fellow Africans.
Download a full version of Reporting to Society 2018
An account of our social, economic and environmental impacts and how these contribute to our sustainability and ability to achieve our purpose. It includes our environmental, social and governance report, and Standard Bank South Africa’s transformation report.
We recognise that we cannot achieve our purpose ‘Africa is
our home, we drive her growth’ without our stakeholders.
That’s why we engage with our stakeholders on a regular basis,
to understand their concerns, build relationships, and develop
partnerships.
On this page:
Governance of stakeholder engagements
Identifying our stakeholders
Responsible advocacy on policy and regulatory issues
Download a full version of Reporting to Society 2018
An account of our social, economic and environmental impacts and how these contribute to our sustainability and ability to achieve our purpose. It includes our environmental, social and governance report, and Standard Bank South Africa’s transformation report.
We have a series of internal policies, procedures and controls
in place to ensure that accurate data is provided. Our group
social and ethics committee provided oversight of this report.
PricewaterhouseCoopers provided limited external assurance on
selected performance data in this report, indicated by
a , in accordance with the International Standard on Assurance
Engagements (ISAE 3000). The scope of the assurance
engagement and the statement of assurance are provided in
this section.
Download a full version of Reporting to Society 2018
An account of our social, economic and environmental impacts and how these contribute to our sustainability and ability to achieve our purpose. It includes our environmental, social and governance report, and Standard Bank South Africa’s transformation report.
In 2017, we began our journey on impact reporting, identifying
the areas of impact that our core business has on the societies in
which we operate. Here you will find an overview of the progress
made in 2018 in further refining our SEE impact areas.
Download a full version of Reporting to Society 2018
An account of our social, economic and environmental impacts and how these contribute to our sustainability and ability to achieve our purpose. It includes our environmental, social and governance report, and Standard Bank South Africa’s transformation report.
Our report is structured according to six areas in which we believed that Standard Bank could make a significant positive social, economic and environmental (SEE) impact.
Download a full version of Reporting to Society 2018
An account of our social, economic and environmental impacts and how these contribute to our sustainability and ability to achieve our purpose. It includes our environmental, social and governance report, and Standard Bank South Africa’s transformation report.
Accessible and convenient digital channels are essential to
broaden and deepen financial inclusion across the continent.
We’re keenly aware of our responsibility to ensure that our
customers have a clear understanding of our products and
services, and how to use them cost-effectively. We’re committed
to partnering with our customers during difficult times, and
endeavour to work with our customers to develop workable
solutions when they find themselves struggling to repay their
debt.
Download a full version of Reporting to Society 2018
An account of our social, economic and environmental impacts and how these contribute to our sustainability and ability to achieve our purpose. It includes our environmental, social and governance report, and Standard Bank South Africa’s transformation report.
Micro, small and medium enterprises are key drivers of
economic growth and job creation across Africa. But many
struggle to move from start-up businesses to sustainable firms
with the potential to expand and employ others.
Download a full version of Reporting to Society 2018
An account of our social, economic and environmental impacts and how these contribute to our sustainability and ability to achieve our purpose. It includes our environmental, social and governance report, and Standard Bank South Africa’s transformation report.
Standard Bank works with governments, development finance
institutions and other commercial banks to structure and
provide appropriate financial solutions to address Africa’s
infrastructure gaps, with appropriate risk sharing arrangements.
Inadequate power, water, transport and telecommunications
infrastructure inhibits Africa’s economic growth and potential for
job creation and human development. The African Development
Bank has estimated that Africa needs USD170 billion per year in
infrastructure investment.
Download a full version of Reporting to Society 2018
An account of our social, economic and environmental impacts and how these contribute to our sustainability and ability to achieve our purpose. It includes our environmental, social and governance report, and Standard Bank South Africa’s transformation report.
Africa’s growth depends on her people having access to quality
education, and the promotion of skills training and lifelong
learning opportunities in the context of the fourth industrial
revolution.
Standard Bank supports this in various ways. We work with
partners in the education and corporate sectors to address the
challenge of affordable and accessible student finance, including
through innovative models such as our Feenix crowd-funding
platform in South Africa.
Download a full version of Reporting to Society 2018
An account of our social, economic and environmental impacts and how these contribute to our sustainability and ability to achieve our purpose. It includes our environmental, social and governance report, and Standard Bank South Africa’s transformation report.
Our purpose is to drive Africa’s growth. A core part of our
business is to facilitate trade and investment flows between
African countries, and between African countries and global
markets.
We partner with international investors to connect them to
opportunities in Africa, and with African governments, SOEs and
businesses to facilitate their access to global capital markets.
We helped raise over USD15 billion of finance for our African
clients in 2018. We’re also working with African firms, and
small enterprises in particular, to improve their access to trade
finance.
Download a full version of Reporting to Society 2018
An account of our social, economic and environmental impacts and how these contribute to our sustainability and ability to achieve our purpose. It includes our environmental, social and governance report, and Standard Bank South Africa’s transformation report.
Standard Bank is a major employer in Africa, employing
over 52 147 people. We encourage continuous learning and
development to ensure our people are equipped to meet the
demands of a rapidly changing, increasingly digital world of
work. We invest in training and development at all levels, enabling
us to build a strong succession pipeline of future leaders.
Download a full version of Reporting to Society 2018
An account of our social, economic and environmental impacts and how these contribute to our sustainability and ability to achieve our purpose. It includes our environmental, social and governance report, and Standard Bank South Africa’s transformation report.
Standard Bank recognises that our core business activities must
contribute to the prosperity and wellbeing of the societies and
environment in which we operate. This understanding defines
our purpose: Africa is our home. We drive her growth, and
is supported by sound environmental, social and governance
(ESG) policies and outcomes.
This report provides an overview of our ESG practices and performance for 2018.
Standard Bank is committed to doing the right business the right
way, ensuring that our clients are treated fairly and consistently,
that we adhere to global and national regulatory and governance
standards, and that our decisions and actions are informed by
the group’s values and ethics. As per South Africa’s King IV Code
of Corporate Governance, we recognise that we are an integral
part of the societies in which we operate, dependent on these
societies for our licence to operate, and that we are therefore
obligated, morally and legally, to act in accordance with what is
good for these societies as well as what is good for the bank.
The greatest impact we have as a financial institution is through
our financial activities. We have developed a comprehensive
framework which will ensure that the group proactively
identifies, manages, monitors and embeds environmental
and social (E&S) risk management into its lending processes.
Standard Bank aims to drive Africa’s growth with minimal
negative reputational, social, economic and environmental
impact.
Climate change, coupled with the related issue of water scarcity,
has emerged as a leading risk for business and society. SBG
is working toward better understanding our environmental
impacts and the impacts of climate change on our business. In
2018 we continued to invest in the reduction of our direct carbon
footprint through energy and water monitoring and savings
measures at our head offices and branches.
We understand that to become the leading financial services
organisation in, for and across Africa, we must contribute to the
long-term prosperity of the communities and countries in which
we operate, by facilitating inclusive economic growth and social
development.
To do this effectively we must ensure our relevance to social
needs and our capacity to help advance national objectives.
Our vision commits us to contributing to socioeconomic
development in a way that is consistent with the nature and size
of our operations in the countries we serve.
Africa’s growth depends on her people having access to
quality education, and the promotion of skills training and
lifelong learning opportunities in the context of the fourth
industrial revolution.
The group social and ethics committee is responsible for
ensuring that we act ethically in relation to internal and external
stakeholders, and society more broadly.
The committee meets quarterly and includes executive and
non-executive directors. Key issues discussed by the committee
during 2018 included progress on embedding an ethical culture
in Standard Bank; group-wide principles for stakeholder
engagement; measures to accelerate gender and racial
transformation within South Africa, and gender equity across the
group; effectiveness of group policies and processes to minimise
instances and support the victims of discrimination and sexual
harassment; issues raised by environmental and social rights
groups; and employee wellbeing.
We understand that responsible management of environment,
health, safety and social responsibility issues is important to
our growth, profitability and long-term success. This section
provides a selection of our ESG performance data from
2016 – 2018.
On this page:
Environmental and social risk management (indirect)
This section of our reporting suite looks at how The Standard
Bank of South Africa (SBSA) is enabling the transformation
of South Africa’s economy through our broad-based black
economic empowerment programmes. The report is structured
according to the elements of the Financial Sector Code and
covers the initiatives, projects, and strategies that are in place to
drive transformation.
THE STANDARD BANK OF SOUTH AFRICA TRANSFORMATION REPORT
Download a full version of our Transformation Report 2018
This section of our reporting suite looks at how The Standard Bank of South Africa (SBSA) is enabling the transformation of South Africa’s economy through our broad-based black economic empowerment programmes.
Enabling the transformation of South Africa’s economy aligns with our group social, economic and environmental (SEE) value driver which seeks to generate social, economic and environmental value for our stakeholders and society through our core business activities.
THE STANDARD BANK OF SOUTH AFRICA TRANSFORMATION REPORT
Download a full version of our Transformation Report 2018
This section of our reporting suite looks at how The Standard Bank of South Africa (SBSA) is enabling the transformation of South Africa’s economy through our broad-based black economic empowerment programmes.
Standard Bank’s purpose is ‘Africa is our home, we drive her
growth.’ Driving growth means an economy in which every
South African, regardless of their race or gender or the social
context, can access basic necessities; and an economy in which
success and prosperity are the result of hard work and talent,
rather than inherited privilege or personal connections. As a
corporate citizen with a social responsibility, we are committed
to supporting economic growth.
THE STANDARD BANK OF SOUTH AFRICA TRANSFORMATION REPORT
Download a full version of our Transformation Report 2018
This section of our reporting suite looks at how The Standard Bank of South Africa (SBSA) is enabling the transformation of South Africa’s economy through our broad-based black economic empowerment programmes.
The report is structured according to the elements of the
Financial Sector Code and covers the initiatives, projects, and
strategies that are in place to drive transformation.
THE STANDARD BANK OF SOUTH AFRICA TRANSFORMATION REPORT
Download a full version of our Transformation Report 2018
This section of our reporting suite looks at how The Standard Bank of South Africa (SBSA) is enabling the transformation of South Africa’s economy through our broad-based black economic empowerment programmes.
THE STANDARD BANK OF SOUTH AFRICA TRANSFORMATION REPORT
Download a full version of our Transformation Report 2018
This section of our reporting suite looks at how The Standard Bank of South Africa (SBSA) is enabling the transformation of South Africa’s economy through our broad-based black economic empowerment programmes.
We are a financial services organisation in, for and across
Africa.
Our purpose is to drive Africa’s growth.
We are committed to being more than a provider
of financial products and services – we are a catalyst for economic change in our
countries of
operation and we make life better for our fellow Africans by doing the right
business the right way.
We operate in 20 African countries and are headquartered in Johannesburg. Our primary
listing is on the Johannesburg
Stock Exchange (JSE) in South Africa, with a secondary listing in Namibia.
Subsidiary banks are listed on exchanges in
Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria and Uganda.
49% of Standard
Bank is owned by
South Africans.
51% of Standard Bank is owned by international
investors, with China (20%), USA (15%) and UK
(2%) making up the top three.
SEE more
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited (ICBC), the world’s largest bank
by assets, is a 20.1% shareholder. This
strategic relationship enables us to work with ICBC to facilitate investment
flows and commercial relationships between
China and Africa, to the benefit of African countries. Our second largest
shareholder is the Government Employees Pension
Fund of South Africa which holds 12.3% of shares.
The Standard Bank Group (SBG) is the largest African banking group by assets,
with a market capitalisation of
approximately R289 billion (USD20 billion), offering a range of banking and
related financial services across
sub-Saharan Africa.
Our vision is to be the leading financial services organisation in, for and
across Africa, delivering exceptional client
experiences and superior value.
Being a truly African organisation allows us to create shared value for our
clients, our people, our shareholders and society
by contributing to their financial wellbeing and the socioeconomic growth of the
economies in which we operate.
We have a 157-year history in South Africa, and for 30 years we have been
building our franchises across sub-Saharan
Africa as well as extending into key international markets.
We subscribe to the Code of Banking Practice, a set of principles governing
banking in South Africa which ensures the
highest standards of professionalism, integrity and fairness.
SEE less
INTEGRATED FINANCIAL SERVICES
Personal &
Business
Banking (PBB)
provides banking and
other financial services
to individual clients and
small and medium-sized
enterprises (SMEs).
Corporate &
Investment
Banking (CIB)
offers corporate and
investment banking
services to clients,
including governments,
parastatals,
larger corporates,
multinationals and
financial institutions.
Wealth
offers insurance, investment, fiduciary, bespoke
banking and multi-generational wealth preservation
solutions
to high net worth, retail, business and commercial
and
corporate clients across the group’s footprint.
Liberty
Life insurance and
investment management
activities of the group
companies in the
Liberty Holdings Group.
Please refer to
www.libertyholdings.co.za
for more information.
Who we are
We are an African-focused, client-centric, digitally enabled, integrated
financial services organisation.
Our operating context
Our presence across a wide range of countries and sectors
presents us with both risks and opportunities.
Our strategy
Our strategy remains unchanged, and continues to respond to
our operating context, our stakeholders’
needs and the related material issues.
Focus areas
Client centricity
Digitisation
Integrated group
Our value creation model
Our business model enables us to respond in a dynamic
environment of competing stakeholder expectations,
complex competitive forces and regulatory pressures.
Standard Bank’s value drivers
– Arno Daehnke
>
SEE and why it is important to
Standard Bank
– Sola David-Borha
Our reporting suite
We publish several reports to provide our
stakeholders with the information they need to assess
our performance.
Our annual integrated report, our primary report, provides a holistic and material
assessment of our ability to create value
over time. It considers the issues material to maintaining the commercial viability
and social relevance required to achieve
our strategy in the medium to long term, and covers both our financial performance
and material non-financial information.
Our Reporting to Society platform aims to communicate with a broad group of
stakeholders about how we impact on the
societies, economies and environments in which we operate.
It provides information on those areas in which we believe we can and do make a
significant positive contribution to
improving life for our fellow Africans, and mitigating any negative impacts.
THIS REPORT
Reporting to Society
An account of our social, economic and environmental impacts and how these
contribute to our sustainability and ability to achieve our purpose. It
includes our
environmental, social and governance report, and Standard Bank South
Africa’s
transformation report.
KEY
FRAMEWORKS APPLIED
King IV Code of Corporate
Governance
CDP (previously Carbon
Disclosure Project)
United Nations (UN) Sustainable
Development Goals
Equator Principles
Global Reporting Initiative
(as a guide)
ASSURANCE
PricewaterhouseCoopers
Inc. has provided
assurance over selected
information. Refer below
for details.
Report to society
FURTHER READING
ANNUAL INTEGRATED REPORT
Holistic assessment of the group’s ability to create value, in the short,
medium and long term.
SBG has a series of internal policies, procedures and controls in place to ensure
that accurate data is provided. The SBG
social and ethics committee provided oversight of this report.
PricewaterhouseCoopers provided limited external assurance
on selected performance data in this report, indicated by a , in
accordance with the International Standard on Assurance
Engagements (ISAE 3000). The scope of the assurance engagement and the statement of
assurance are provided on
page of this report.
, in accordance with the International Standard on Assurance
Engagements (ISAE 3000). The scope of the assurance
engagement and the statement of assurance are provided in
this section.
, in
accordance with the International Standard on Assurance
Engagements (ISAE 3000). The scope of the assurance engagement and the statement of
assurance are provided on
page of this report.
