The British-based banking group Standard Chartered is in the process of acquiring the local on-line financial services firm 20twenty and is to open a full-service bank in South Africa.
Standard Chartered disinvested from the Standard Bank of South Africa in 1987, and returned to the country in 1992 with a representative office, which conducted wholesale business only. The Reserve Bank has now authorised Standard Chartered to conduct retail banking as well.
At a media conference in Johannesburg on Tuesday, Peter Sullivan, the bank’s chief executive for Africa, said the acquisition of 20twenty –part of Saambou Bank, now in curatorship — was subject to regulatory approvals, but these were mere formalities. A re-launched retail banking business would start in the first quarter of 2004.
Christo Davel, founder of 20twenty and now Standard Chartered’s head of retail, said 20twenty had acquired 40 000 customers between its opening in July 2001, and Saambou going into curatorship in February 2002. He said he was ”thrilled” by the customer’s loyalty, as only six percent of them had closed their accounts since the curatorship, and ”a big proportion of them” were still depositing their salaries into 20twenty.
Sullivan said Standard Chartered operated in 14 African countries including Mauritius and South Africa. The supervision of the bank’s African operations would gradually be moved from London to Johannesburg.
The bank was committed to the New Partnership for Africa’s Development and the Financial Services Charter, and was recruiting black staff at all levels of the firm, said Sullivan, an Australian national.
It was confident in the South African economy, and ”admired the strict fiscal policy” of the National treasury.
The bank has ”created 21 highly skilled new jobs” in South Africa, and will employ more people in future.
Sullivan said he was under no illusions about the difficulty of competing in the local banking market, dominated by four large established banks. He contrasted this with Nigeria where, he said, there were 94 competing banks.
He said wholesale and retail business in the group so far was roughly equal, and he expected the retail business to be ”the engine for growth” of its South African operation.
Sullivan would not be drawn on what market share the bank hoped to achieve in South Africa or on revenue projections, and said it was too early to say whether Standard Chartered would have brick-and-mortar branches, or how many of them.
Sullivan is a former test rugby player and captained the Wallabies in the early 1970s.
Standard Chartered is named after two banks which merged in 1969, the Standard Bank of South Africa — formed in Port Elizabeth in 1859 — and the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China, founded in 1853. The bank operates in over 50 countries and is listed in London and Hong Kong. – Sapa