Sim Tshabalala reveals what it takes to run Africa’s biggest bank

Simphiwe “Sim” Tshabalala sits atop a financial institution that is comfortably the largest in Africa, with R3.6 trillion in assets and R49.2 billion in headline earnings. 

Operating across 21 markets in Africa and hubs in New York, London, Dubai, and Beijing, Standard Bank has become a global giant in recent years. 

Its Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB) division alone generates more in headline earnings than Capitec or Nedbank in their entirety, and it moves R4.9 trillion in payments on an average day. 

This is to say nothing of its Business and Commercial Banking or Personal and Private Banking (PPB) units, which generated a combined R20.6 billion in headline earnings in 2026. 

These individual business units are larger than many companies listed on the JSE, with their platforms used by millions of people on a daily basis. 

However, as with any company, the buck ultimately stops with one person at the top. In the case of Africa’s biggest bank, that is Sim Tshabalala.

Born in Hlabisa in rural KwaZulu-Natal, Tshabalala moved to Soweto when he was young to gain access to better education and, in the long run, employment opportunities. 

After matriculating from Sacred Heart College in Johannesburg, the young Tshabalala would go to Rhodes University for a Bachelor of Arts degree. 

At this point, it appeared as though Tshabalala would become a lawyer, completing a Bachelor of Laws in 1990 and graduating top of his class with a Master of Laws from the illustrious Notre Dame University in the United States. 

Upon his return to South Africa, Tshabalala pursued a legal career and was admitted as an attorney of the High Court of South Africa in 1994. 

His stint in practising law was short-lived, and he joined Real Africa Durolink Investment Bank later that year and worked in its structured finance division until 2000.

Tshabalala’s career in banking took off when he joined Standard Bank in 2000 as head of structured finance in the Project Finance Division of Standard Corporate and Merchant Bank.

Just 13 years later, Tshabalala would be joint CEO of the Standard Bank Group, taking on responsibility for the bank’s operations across the continent. 

He served alongside Ben Kruger as co-CEO until 2017, when he became the company’s sole CEO. This ensured that the buck, in this case trillions of bucks, stopped with Tshabalala. 

The natural question is, how does a single person, born in Hlabisa in rural KwaZulu-Natal and raised in Soweto, manage such a business?

In an interview following Standard Bank’s financial results for 2025, Daily Investor asked Tshabalala this question, with Africa’s premier banker taking a moment to order his thoughts before outlining his intense schedule. 

What it takes to run Africa’s biggest bank

There is a slight misconception that banking is a business built on numbers, spreadsheets, and machines that facilitate payments, hold deposits, and issue credit. 

However, as Tshabalala made clear, it is fundamentally a human enterprise, with a modern bank built on trust between the institution, regulators, and its clients. 

It is also forgotten that while much of “banking” occurs digitally, all of those transactions, savings, spending, and lending are made by humans. 

Furthermore, in the case of Tshabalala as a CEO, all of those systems are built and maintained by humans. Most importantly, decisions are made by humans. 

As a result, much of Tshabalala’s time is spent meeting with these humans, including regulators, central bank governors, clients, staff members, and representatives from international correspondent banks. 

He also has very little choice in these matters, with many of his meetings set in the diary and not up for debate or discussion. 

“This is usually regulatory and governance, so the board meetings, committee meetings, they are in the diary and there is nothing you can do about them,” Tshabalala said. 

“The other things you can’t do anything about are the accountability meetings and executive committee meetings that I chair.” 

Tshabalala explained that once a month, the entirety of Standard Bank’s Group Leadership Committee meets for a full day. 

“We go through everything – the risks, the client value propositions, the pricing, the returns, the capital allocation, et cetera, et cetera. You cannot miss that,” he said. 

Since becoming sole CEO in 2017, Tshabalala has overseen a significant overhaul in Standard Bank’s structure to become more client-centric and fit for the modern age. 

This means that a significant portion of his time is spent with clients, particularly CIB clients, which include central banks and governments alongside multinational corporations. 

Tshabalala still makes time to see personal banking clients occasionally, with the CEO taking time out of his day to engage with high-net-worth clients. 

“It is an important part of what I do, because remember, we said we are laser-focused on the clients. I try to make a point of seeing clients,” Tshabalala said. 

“I spend a lot of time with the CIB bankers, with business banking clients, retail banking clients and high-net-worth clients.”

Tshabalala takes this responsibility so seriously that the day before the bank released its 2025 financial results, he met with a large American bank at Standard Bank’s Rosebank offices. 

This was one of Standard Bank’s correspondent banks, with the two institutions providing each other various services. In this case, Tshabalala said the discussion centred around the services they provide to one another in Turkey. 

These engagements are one-half of Tshabalala’s duties, with the CEO still having to engage with employees at the bank, ensure the incentive structures are sound, and travel to some of the 21 African markets in which it operates. 

Keeping staff happy and travelling the globe

On the other end of bank-client interactions are, naturally, the bankers who facilitate transactions, deals, and financing for large corporates or individuals. 

Oftentimes, the CEO of such a large business is restricted in how they interact with staff members, as they are limited to the top layer of executives. 

While Tshabalala does engage with the upper echelons of the bank, he also makes a point of engaging with individual staff members and communicating with the entire group. 

“There is working with staff, motivating them, and making sure that I am talking to the top layer of executives. I do that once a quarter,” Tshabalala said. 

“I then also have to make sure that I am talking to staff. Once a month, I have a staff message, and then I do walkabouts at the offices.” 

Talking to the entire group is extremely difficult when it operates across Africa and four global hubs. The only way to do this properly is to travel and press flesh.

“There are countries to visit, and not on holiday. I try to visit four to five African countries every year. I don’t always manage to do that, but I try to,” the CEO said.

African markets have become increasingly important to Standard Bank’s bottom line, with its Africa Regions business contributing R19.7 billion in headline earnings in 2025.

These markets are also growing at much faster rates than South Africa, making them highly lucrative. Tshabalala believes we are living through the African century, with these growth rates only serving to help him double down on his thesis. 

Apart from these markets, Standard Bank operates global hubs in New York, London, Dubai, and Beijing. These offices serve to facilitate capital flows into and out of the continent. 

“At least twice a year, I need to go to the United States to visit our colleagues there. I visit London at least twice a year, and Beijing at least once a year,” he said.

“The other one is the Middle East. I go there about once a year. That is how I manage the clients in those far-flung parts of the world.” 

On top of these commitments, given the size of Standard Bank, Tshabalala is often called in by regulators in times of crisis or for “programmatic visits”. 

Tshabalala cannot do this alone, with Standard Bank having a history of creating deep talent pools and strong executive teams. Apart from this, the people closest to him help Tshabalala meet the demands of running Africa’s largest bank. 

“In all of this, you have to have a team of people that support you and help you to make sure that you are meeting all of those obligations. Only then are there results,” he said.