Introduction by the chairman              
 Our vision and values                      
 Sustainability report overview              
 Group overview                               
 Group executive committee          
 Executive summary                           
 Stakeholder engagement               
 Economic contribution                    
 Corporate governance and ethics
 BEE and FSC                                   
 Shareholders                                
 Customers                                        
 Employees                                     
 Suppliers                                         
 Corporate social responsibility
 Environment                                    
 African footprint                                  
 International footprint                       

African footprint
   
 
picture: African footprintStandard Bank continues to strengthen its presence in Africa outside South Africa not only by growing our business operations and increasing our customer base, but also through our expanding commitment to supporting a broad spectrum of socioeconomic development initiatives, as well as various community welfare and social upliftment projects.








 

Highlights

  • we continued to expand and enhance our banking services and infrastructure in support of Africa’s economic development;
     
  • we maintained a disciplined approach to governance and risk management, and recorded no material breakdown in any of our governance or risk management systems for any of the countries in which we operate;
     
  • we invested in developing human capital in Africa and increased our training and development expenditure by 23% from R22 million in 2003 to R27 million in 2004;
     
  • we retained our strong commitment to educating our employees in Africa about the HIV/Aids pandemic; and
     
  • we continued to support a wide variety of social investment programmes, most notably in the fields of education and training, social welfare, Aids education and healthcare.
Looking ahead we will strive to
  • continue expanding our branch and ATM network and our product offering;
     
  • continue building our brand, reputation and service ethic;
     
  • enhance our wholesale banking customer service model, embed our investment banking origination model and further build our transactional services capability;
     
  • continue investing in human capital to ensure the long-term sustainability of our banking operations in competitive, changing markets;
     
  • maintain strict governance and risk management systems in line with our risk appetite, country-specific legislation and international best practice;
     
  • identify selected acquisitions in key markets; and
     
  • improve the quality of our social investments to ensure optimal returns on investment for the targeted communities.

We currently operate in 16 other African countries outside of South Africa, mostly in Anglophone regions. In recent years, we have been striving to strengthen the visibility of our brand (both Standard Bank and Stanbic Bank) in Africa and to distinguish our banking and financial services from those of our competitors.