On the African continent, regional winner Standard Bank continues to enhance its business model to better support its extensive franchise with robust systems and capabilities. The bank’s Investor Services division operates the largest sub-custody network in sub-Saharan Africa, spanning 16 countries.
The strength of the bank’s operations is a differentiating factor, allowing it to attract leading institutional investors, including top global custodians, broker-dealers, and pension funds. This has resulted in solid and consistent growth in new client mandates and a dominant market share in assets under custody in these countries.
In addition to its regional win, Standard Bank is the country winner in Mozambique and South Africa; and Standard Bank Group subsidiary Stanbic Bank wins in Ghana and Nigeria. To maintain service consistency, solutions are delivered through the TCS BaNCS global custody platform, which is available worldwide. The bank has integrated the TCS platform with its own proprietary custody platform, IS Online, for real-time settlement and reporting, featuring custom functionalities. The platform is Swift enabled for the seamless communication of transactions.
TCS updated its BaNCS platform globally in 2024, aiming to provide the strongest capabilities for its clients. The new enhancements include application programming interface (API) compatibility that expands the system’s functionality. With centralized functions across operations, account management, sales, and technology, the bank maintains uniform standards to deliver high levels of service.
Standard Bank looks to simplify and enhance operational efficiency via new growth initiatives. The bank has completed a pilot program to provide clients with access to real-time data, enabling improved reporting capabilities that include a dashboard of all asset positions. For clients with business interests in multiple markets, the bank has developed an offering that requires only one legal agreement and operational contract to serve all markets.
The bank is a leader in securities lending, having been the first to offer the service in South Africa and now in the Nigerian market. Launches are planned for Botswana and Kenya.
Methodology
In selecting the institutions that reliably provide the best services in these local markets and regions, Global Finance’s editorial board considered market research, input from expert sources, and entry information from the banks themselves. The criteria included such factors as customer relations, quality of service, technology platforms, and post-settlement operations, as well as knowledge of local markets, regulations, and practices.
