Sim Tshabalala, Standard Bank Group CEO.
Standard Bank Group witnessed growth in digital retail clients in South Africa, for the 2025 financial year.
This, as the JSE-listed financial services group reported headline earnings of R49.2 billion and delivered a return on equity of 19.3%.
According to results released today, the bank’s digital retail clients grew by 9%, with digital transactions increasing by 5%, for the period under review.
“In South Africa, deliberate actions to drive growth in digital retail transactional clients resulted in a 9% increase in digital clients, a 5% increase in digital transactional volumes, and an increase in the proportion of transactional clients who transact digitally to 67%,” says the bank.
Standard Bank is Africa’s biggest bank by assets, with operations in 21 African countries where it has full in-country banking operations. It has seven international financial centres outside Africa.
See also
In South Africa, the bank delivered earnings of R24.9 billion, the Africa regions’ franchise delivered R19.7 billion in earnings, while the offshore businesses posted R3.1 billion and the contribution from Standard Bank’s 40% stake in ICBC Standard Bank was R1.5 billion.
Cumulatively, the businesses contributed 51%, 40%, 6% and 3%, respectively, to group headline earnings. The key contributors to Africa regions’ headline earnings were Angola, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, the bank states.
Sim Tshabalala, Standard Bank Group CEO, says: “2025 marked a significant milestone as we achieved or surpassed the ambitious financial targets we set in 2021.
“Looking ahead, we continue to be guided by our purpose: Africa is our home, we drive her growth. Indeed, Africa continues to grow fast and steadily, and the opportunities across the continent remain significant.
“We recognise the challenges posed by intensifying competition (including from fintechs), evolving regulatory dynamics, and the accelerating role of artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies.We are confident in our ability to drive sustainable growth in the short-, medium- and long-term.”
