Standard Bank’s plan to dominate investing in South Africa
Standard Bank has plans to dominate asset management in South Africa by leveraging its banking client base to cross-sell its investment products.
Duncan Wattam, head of investment solutions at Standard Bank South Africa, outlined these plans at the bank’s Democracy and Markets event earlier this month.
The bank’s ambitious plans come after it reincorporated the Liberty insurance business and asset manager Stanlib into the Group’s operations in 2022.
Standard Bank already controlled the companies but decided to merge them to enhance efficiency and enable it to become a full-service financial institution.
This will enable the bank to leverage its African banking footprint to sell Liberty’s insurance products. However, Wattam said the main goal is to leverage this banking base to cross-sell its investment products.
Historically, asset managers have been able to stand alone as businesses, but with the rise of low-cost index funds, margins and profits have steadily reduced.
This means these companies need new distribution channels and are more profitable as part of a full-service financial service provider.
Wattam also explained that Standard Bank is looking to align its business with that of its global peers, which generate more than 20% of its earnings from asset and wealth management.
Asset management is very attractive for banks. It enables them to reduce their reliance on net interest income from loans and increases their return on equity, making their businesses more capital efficient.
Currently, Standard Bank, as a group, is the second-largest private asset manager in South Africa behind Ninety One.
The bank has R1.4 trillion in assets under management (AUM) through its various businesses, including Stanlib, Melville Douglas, and Standard Bank Asset Management.
Of the R1.4 trillion, Stanlib holds over R650 billion in AUM and is South Africa’s largest fixed-income and property investor.

Plan to dominate
Wattam said Standard Bank invests heavily in developing its investment platforms to take on other asset managers and better integrate its products. In the next 18 months, the bank is set to take its new investment platform live.
He explained that the bank’s strong competitive advantages allow it to grow at a higher rate than the rest of the market.
Wattam said Standard Bank has four factors working in its favour to help the bank take the asset management industry by storm.
The first factor is the bank’s more than 18 million-strong client base, enabling it to cross-sell these investment products throughout Africa.
This will enable the bank to fully service its clients on both sides of their balance sheet – from traditional loans to retirement products.
Effectively, Standard Bank can dominate the entire value chain, remain ‘front of wallet’ and create an ecosystem for its clients.
Secondly, Standard Bank has a global footprint, with offices in Jersey that manage its offshore banking services.
This means the bank can help clients bank offshore and manage their offshore investments in hard currency, diversifying its earnings into more stable currencies from developed markets.
Through this, Standard Bank aims to capture value from clients taking money into and out of South Africa – something it has done predominantly for businesses in the past.
The third factor is the bank’s ability to penetrate Africa’s untapped insurance and asset management market.
African financial systems remain relatively unsophisticated, with many citizens being 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 has lagged behind.
The incorporation of Liberty into the Group enables it to sell insurance and asset management products through its banking channels in Africa.
Fourthly, the bank will have complete control of the entire value chain, enhancing its capital efficiency and profitability.
Wattam said this will ultimately enable Standard Bank to offer more competitive pricing for its products and offer more value-added services through existing distribution channels.
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