Standard Bank is cementing its position as Africa’s largest lender by assets, prioritising technology and payments under bold 2028 growth targets unveiled this week.
The bank, which aims to grow headline earnings by between 8% and 12% and bump up its return on equity target to between 18% and 22% by 2028, aims to capture further expansion on the continent.
The group sees its solid AI, technology and payments as opportunities to offer innovative solutions to clients as Africa enters a growth phase buoyed by reforms in energy and infrastructure.
Group COO Margaret Nienaber told analysts at the bank’s Capital Markets Day this week that the aim was to focus on integrated payments, taking into consideration regulatory and geopolitical shifts in a highly contested environment.
“Competition is intensifying, not only from banks but also from fintechs, accelerated by the pace of technological advancement. Our payment strategy spans across traditional payment rails and emerging modern rails,” she said.
Nienaber said in 2025 the Standard Bank processed more than R164-trillion in payments across its 20-million clients and banking relationships, equivalent to about R300m moving through its systems every minute — nearly $10- trillion a year — larger than the GDP of some of the major European economies.
“Payments are expected to be one of the fastest-growing domains in Africa, growing faster than GDP, and the value lies not in transaction alone but in the flywheel it creates,” she said.
We’re scaling immediate payments, expanding merchant acquiring, and deepening wallet and agency banking to grow volumes, primacy and liquidity.
— Margaret Nienaber, Standard Bank Group COO
Nienaber said the bank’s cross-border payments grew 12%, with 31% market share in South Africa and 17% across the group’s footprint. The bank holds R2-trillion in deposits, with current and savings accounts making up a third, while R28bn was disbursed in client claims in 2025.
“We’re scaling immediate payments, expanding merchant acquiring and deepening wallet and agency banking to grow volumes, primacy and liquidity,” said Nienaber.
The group will also focus on merchant acquiring after SimplyBLU, a payment solution that enables merchants to manage their operations and handle payments and sales directly reported a 19% increase in sales.
The group also generated R7bn from FlexiPay in Uganda in 2025, underscoring its growth in the region, while mobile money has room for improvement in Payshap.
“We will continue to focus on areas like Payshap, where our market share is improving but where there is still room to strengthen our proposition,” she said.
As part of its focus on digital assets, Standard Bank is focused on cryptocurrency, tokenised deposits and stablecoins, and to date the lender has processed R1-trillion through its Aroko payment platform. It is the banker of the rand-denominated stablecoin called ZARU.
Nienaber said digital assets, including tokenised deposits and stablecoins, have an important role to play in giving options to clients within a controlled regulatory framework. “Our approach is to look at partnerships, making sure we protect our deposit bank. We’re making sure we have blockchain capability,” she said.
According to a report by Chainalysis, Sub-Saharan Africa is shifting towards cheaper and faster remittance alternatives, with the continent emerging as one of the fastest-growing regions for crypto asset adoption, recording over $125bn in on-chain crypto transactions in recent years.
It said in countries where local currencies were highly volatile and access to dollar stablecoins was gaining traction, stablecoins now account for about 43% of the region’s total transaction volume.
In terms of cross-border payments, Standard Bank became Africa’s first bank to connect clients to the Africa-Asia payment corridor through China’s Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS).
Since its launch in 2025, it has processed R9.5bn, highlighting its ability to offer customers payment choices without taking from existing payment options.
The group also has an edge on the continent through its corporate and investment bank (CIB) that generates R1.5-trillion in deposits.
Luvuyo Masinda, Standard Bank CIB CEO, said the key differentiator is diversification across geographies and the sectors driving Africa’s growth. The plan was to position the bank at the centre of Africa’s infrastructure and energy supercycle.
“It is our belief that Africa is entering its most consequential decade of capital formation. We’re confident we’re well-built and well-poised to intermediate it at scale,” he said.
Business Times
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