Standard Chartered enhanced the quality of the delivery of banking solutions in Sierra Leone with the development of a wholesale banking team, including global, local corporate and commodity corporate, financial institutions and treasury service. The team provides tailor-made solutions in finance, trade, advisory and risk management to the bank’s customers.
The bank launched a service centre to serve development organisations, corporate and high net worth retail customers. This initiative includes straight-2-banking, which gives one-click access to online transacting, hedging and information, as well as a hotline to handle customer complaints and feedback.
Standard Chartered conducted capacity-building workshops for customers, to highlight the risks associated with international trade and the solutions that the bank offers. Leveraging on its group network, it provided specialist advice to policy makers, regulators and industry players on project finance in key sectors of the economy. Discussions are well advanced in closing a $70m structured financing in the mining and energy sectors, a $15m collateral management agreement in commodity finance, and a $3m foreign exchange swap in the energy sector.
The bank embarked on a major technology upgrade of its VSAT system. This enhanced its performance to a greater extent with a faster and more reliable system, providing the smooth transfer of data within a wider bandwidth. The bank also migrated to SCSTAR, a better system for transmitting messages by telegraphic transfer worldwide. The system improved turnaround time for customers in sending and receiving funds even when routed through correspondent banks.
“On behalf of all Standard Chartered staff in Sierra Leone, our valued customers and stakeholders, we are proud to be the winner of the prestigious Bank of The Year award for the fourth time running,” says managing director Albert Saltson. “We continue to be the leading international bank and the most profitable bank in Sierra Leone with a RoE of 76%, using our core skills, services and talent to make a positive contribution to Sierra Leone.”
