Standard Bank CEO Sim Tshabalala says the search for the bank’s new successor is top of the agenda for the board as he prepares to step down at the end of 2027.
“The succession of the CEO is the single most important job of the board and the CEO. It is a matter of grave importance and is taken very seriously at Standard Bank,” Tshabalala told Business Times after the release of the group’s results for the year ended December.
“Huge amounts of investment have gone into the top executive, which is a large executive. It’s the largest in the country, and the pipelines are deep and they are rich,” he said.
The group made sweeping changes to its executive late last year when it named David Hodnett as CEO of Standard Bank South Africa to replace Kenny Fihla, who left the bank to become the head of rival Absa in June 2025.
Standard Bank also hired Thabani Ndwandwe as group chief risk officer and made Lungisa Fuzile the permanent CEO for Africa Regions and Offshore.
“The successor to Simphiwe Tshabalala will be from Standard Bank,” Tshabalala said. “It will be an accomplished executive, and it will be an executive who is capable of running this multinational organisation, which is large and complicated, and that person will do it with aplomb.”
He said the announcement will be the “purview” of Standard Bank’s chair.
“That’s the plan. It’s systematic. It’s been done many, many times in the 163 years [of Standard Bank’s existence], and it will be no different this time than it was previously.”
We have got new blood in Standard Bank, but it comes from Standard Bank. It is rich and seasoned; it has been through the wars and managing volatility; and it is a fantastic group of people.
— Sim Tshabalala, Standard Bank CEO
In June the bank’s retirement age for all executives was revised to 63 from 60 in line with all the bank’s employees. However, the retirement age of Tshabalala and Arno Daehnke, chief finance and value management officer, remained at 60. The bank said Tshabalala would retire at the end of 2027 when he turns 60, and chief finance and value management officer Arno Daehnke will retire in September 2027.
“We have got new blood in Standard Bank, but it comes from Standard Bank. It is rich and seasoned; it has been through the wars and managing volatility; and it is a fantastic group of people,” Tshabalala said.
He said he was not fazed by the poaching of talent from the bank, saying it was expected as part of the competitive dynamic globally.
“If you look globally, this is normal. It’s part of the competition. People come and go. You know, one of the global international banks just saw its entire top investment banking team go from one bank to the other. We have seen it in other industries.”
Standard Bank, whose business includes Liberty Holdings and Stanbic Africa, reported a jump in profit to R56.6bn in 2025 from R50bn a year earlier and a more than doubling of its return on equity to 19.3%. It declared an R8.78 a share dividend, bringing the total dividend for the year to R16.95 a share, reflecting a dividend payout ratio of 56%.
The results come as South Africa’s economy is expected to grow by 1.5% this year and 2% by 2028.
Tshabalala said that if the government’s structural economic reforms and Operation Vulindlela move faster, along with municipalities on water, South Africa could see growth at above 3%.
The country’s sentiment is improving following the upgrading of its sovereign credit ratings, and it has been removed from the Financial Action Task Force greylist, he said. Inflation had fallen to a 21-year low, enabling a new 3% inflation target.
Tshabalala also said growth on the African continent was a plus for Standard Bank. “It’s got all the rare earth minerals necessary for the energy transition and so forth, and all the critical minerals. Those require infrastructure, and therefore there will be roads, bridges and ports built. And those obviously create the opportunities, and that’s both in West Africa and also in East Africa.”
He said the intra-Africa trade also creates opportunities. “People need payment rails for the purposes of that trade. They need capital. They need advice and risk management. People need risk management tools to protect themselves against movements in interest rates, in foreign exchange, in commodities, and we provide all of that.”
Business Times
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.