Standard Bank has outperformed the targets it set out in 2021, nearly doubling its profit in the period to a record R49.2bn in the year to end-December with about 40% of this coming from its rest of Africa franchise.
The group’s 2025 results, published on Thursday, put it on course to deliver on its 2026-28 targets outlined a year ago, which aim at 8%-12% annual growth in headline earnings per share and a return on equity within the target range of 18%-22% in the period.
The R4.7bn increase in group earnings in the year was largely due to a surge in earnings in the corporate and investment banking franchise, which reported a R3.6bn increase in profit in the period under review.
The group, which has R3.6-trillion in assets, the largest in Africa’s banking sector, reported a return-on-equity of 19.3%, up from 18.5% in the previous year, while the cost-to-income ratio trended downwards from 50.5% to 50.2% — an indicator that the lender has high operational efficiency and strong profitability.
The lender’s net interest income grew 4%, with margins continuing to be affected by the positive mix benefit of the Africa regions’ portfolio growing faster than the South Africa portfolio.
The banking major is present in 21 African countries on the continent, including South Africa, where it was founded 163 years ago.
The Africa regions contributed R19.7bn of the group’s earnings in the year under review. To put this in context, this is more profit than the whole of the Nedbank group reported in their 2025 financial year and about R6bn shy of Absa’s earnings.
Nine of the group’s Africa region markets reported earnings of more than R1bn, while four reported earnings exceeding R2bn. The East Africa region outpaced others, with earnings growing 25%. Angola, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia were some of the strong performers.
South Africa accounted for R24.8bn of the group’s earnings.
The group’s corporate and investment banking franchise, which serves large companies, multinationals, governments, parastatals, and institutional clients, led by Luvuyo Masinda, accounted for R24bn of the group’s earnings.
The personal and private banking business, led by Funeka Montjane, reported earnings of R11.4bn, a marginal R344m increase from the previous year.
The business and commercial business, led by Bill Blackie, reported earnings of R9.2bn, down from the R9.5bn reported in 2024.
The insurance and asset management division, headed by Yuresh Maharaj, saw profit leap from R3.3bn to R4.1bn.
Group CEO Sim Tshabalala said the group was poised to deliver on its promises to investors.
“The Standard Bank Group is particularly expert and experienced in managing volatility and in creating superior shareholder returns in turbulent times. Therefore, as things stand, we see no reason to modify our commitments and our targets,” he said.
Business Day
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