Standard Bank Group is the largest African bank by assets and earnings. We aim to build the leading African financial services organisation using all our competitive advantages to the full. We will focus on delivering superior sustainable shareholder value by serving the needs of our customers through first-class, on-the-ground operations in chosen countries in Africa. We will also connect other selected emerging markets to Africa and to each other, applying our sector expertise, particularly in natural resources, globally. We operate in 17 countries on the African continent, including South Africa, and 13 countries outside Africa with an emerging market focus. Our customers benefit from our knowledge and expertise in emerging markets, especially in areas of our sectoral expertise, being mining and metals, oil and gas, power and infrastructure, and telecoms and media.

Standard Bank has a 148 year history in South Africa and started building a franchise outside southern Africa in the early 1990s. In recent years, Standard Bank has concluded key acquisitions on the African continent in Kenya and Nigeria. Africa is at our core and we will continue to build first-class on-the-ground banks. We are convinced that this strategy is sound. We organise ourselves as three business units but present ourselves as one. Our three main pillars of business are Personal & Business Banking, Corporate & Investment Banking, and Wealth – Liberty.

Normalised headline earnings for the six months were R6,6 billion ($1 billion), total assets were over R1 379 billion (approximately $203 billion) at 30 June 2011 and we employed more than 51 000 people (including Liberty) across all geographies. Standard Bank's market capitalisation at 30 June 2011 was R159 billion (approximately $23 billion). Standard Bank has 1 290 branches including loan centres and 8 178 ATMs on the African continent.

The long-term ratings for The Standard Bank of South Africa, the single largest operating entity within the Standard Bank Group, are Fitch Ratings BBB+, Moody's A3 and Standard & Poor's BBB. The long-term foreign currency sovereign ratings for South Africa are: Fitch Ratings BBB+, Moody's A3 and Standard & Poor's BBB+. The group is listed on the JSE Limited, share code SBK, and the Namibian Stock Exchange, share code SNB, with a December year end. Excluding the 20,1% ICBC shareholding 26,4% of Standard Bank's shareholder base is foreign.