Standard Bank snaps up Brightrock co-founder to lead insurance charge 

Standard Bank has appointed Brightrock co-founder Schalk Malan to be the head of insurance in South Africa for the bank’s insurance and asset management division. 

This appointment marks a significant step in the bank’s strategy to strengthen its insurance cluster and deliver greater value to clients, financial advisers, and stakeholders.

In his new role, Malan will lead the strategic direction and operations of Liberty’s Retail Life and Savings and Corporate Benefits business lines and Standard Insurance Limited (SIL).

He will report to Yuresh Maharaj, the Chief Executive of Liberty and Insurance and Asset Management, Standard Bank Group.

Renowned for his entrepreneurial spirit, Malan is a qualified actuary and a seasoned insurance executive with a proven track record of building high-performing teams, scaling operations, and delivering client-centric solutions.  

He most notably founded and led BrightRock from a start-up to one of South Africa’s key risk insurers. Malan was CEO from 2017 to 2024 and was instrumental in ensuring Sanlam bought a majority stake in Brightrock. 

“Schalk’s leadership will be instrumental in propelling our insurance business into its next chapter of growth, as we continue to transform and deepen collaboration across our insurance business lines in the group,” Maharaj said. 

Standard Bank has big plans for its insurance and asset management division, aiming to become one of the largest players in the African market. 

The bank bought out minority shareholders in Liberty in 2022, making the insurer a wholly-owned subsidiary and the bank a full-service financial institution. 

The deal had obvious benefits for both parties. The bank can reduce its reliance on lending for its earnings and thus its sensitivity to interest rates, while the insurer has access to Standard Bank’s substantial distribution channels. 

Much of the focus has been placed on the benefits of Standard Bank bringing Liberty’s asset management business, including Stanlib, under its roof. 

Asset management is a particularly attractive and lucrative part of being a full-service financial institution. It is capital-light and offers high-quality earnings with a higher return on equity than traditional banking activities. 

Furthermore, the earnings volatility in the asset management business is relatively low compared to banking and is thus deemed higher quality.

The bank also benefits immensely from the capital optimisation of bringing Liberty into the group, with it generating efficiencies worth R13 billion. 

It estimates that the integration generates R620 million per year in pre-tax synergies from increased efficiencies across staff and IT costs.

Africa’s insurance and asset management market is also relatively untapped, with the region proving difficult to penetrate. 

African financial systems remain relatively unsophisticated, with many citizens still unbanked and lacking access to financial products. 

While Standard Bank has made strong progress in growing its banking services across Africa, insurance and asset management have lagged behind.

The bank is hoping that the integration will enable it to cross-sell insurance and asset management products to its banking client base. 

Standard Bank’s Insurance and Asset Management reported a strong result in the first six months of 2025, with the increased efficiency and distribution paying dividends for the unit.

The division delivered headline earnings growth of 11% to R1.8 billion, with an ROE of 19.7%, sustaining its strong upward momentum over multiple reporting periods.

This performance was supported by an 11% growth in new business value to R1.8 billion and well-capitalised key legal entities. The graph below provides an overview of the division’s performance for the first half of 2025.