Standard Bank Malawi engaged in numerous initiatives last year that led to a positive performance in all business segments and enhanced shareholder value. RoE was sharply boosted from 11% to 28.6% in the year, with a major reduction in the NPL ratio to 1.3% from 7.8%. The bank applied innovation to its products and services and created value for its customers. It also revamped its operating procedures and thereby substantially reduced operating costs. Several branches underwent a major refurbishment and renovation to make them more attractive and capture greater customer flows.
Standard was Malawi’s first bank to introduce Visa cards, which helped to empower local retailers and enable them to travel more widely. It was also the first bank to successfully introduce commercial paper and bankers’ acceptances for corporate clients.
The group’s active treasury function allowed it to intermediate and bring into the country $80m in investment in the local T-bill market, with Citigroup and AIG among its counterparties. Standard is the first and only bank in the market providing derivative products and the group engineered a put option for maize, which saved the government $8m in costs, and simultaneously engaged in a $22.5m hedging of fertiliser.
Standard’s involvement and willingness to give back to the community significantly differentiates it from its peers. The bank launched a successful programme to identify and promote small-scale income-generating projects in rural areas. It helped these projects to obtain funding, training, access to markets and visibility at a national level.
“It is particularly gratifying to have been selected as Bank of the Year in Malawi for the second year in a row,” says chief executive Philip Odera. “The reward is a reflection of our strategic intent to put our customers’ needs first and to provide innovative and timely solutions to these needs. These efforts have not been lost on the investing market and this has been reflected in the substantial gain of our share price and our RoE over the past 12 months. It is our intention to continue along this path and hope that The Banker will be equally impressed with our future performance.”
