When the Institution Grows, the Narrative Must Lead.

About this collection

Standard Bank is managing a transition that is simultaneously a leadership challenge, a brand challenge, and a communication challenge. Africa's largest bank by assets is in motion on multiple fronts at once. Sim Tshabalala, the first Black African to lead Standard Bank and the architect of a 14-year continental expansion strategy, retires at the end of 2027. CFO Arno Daehnke departs at the same time. Kenny Fihla, the heir apparent, left in mid-2025 to lead Absa. David Hodnett, the new CEO of Standard Bank South Africa, brings a risk and corporate affairs background to a role that now demands a different kind of visibility. The Group CEO succession remains publicly unresolved, with the board described as being in an active search for a candidate from what it calls a "deep and rich" pipeline. This is not an operational crisis. The financials are strong. Standard Bank reported headline earnings up 8% to R23.78 billion in the first half of 2025. Return on equity reached 19.1%, the highest under the current regulatory regime. African operations outside South Africa now contribute 41% of group headline earnings. The bank has been named Africa's Most Valuable Bank Brand for five consecutive years. The challenge is not performance. It is continuity of narrative. A brand built substantially around the personal authority and continental vision of one leader now needs to demonstrate that the story belongs to the institution, not the individual. "Keep Growing," the brand campaign launched in July 2025, is the right strategic direction. The question the communications and brand function faces is whether the leadership transition that begins now will strengthen or dilute it. There is a second, quieter pressure alongside the succession story. Customer satisfaction data from December 2025 shows Standard Bank's net satisfaction score declining from 40% to 30% year on year, driven not by a trust deficit but by friction in everyday digital and service interactions. In a market where Capitec has built its entire brand around simplicity and TymeBank is gaining fast on digital ease, Standard Bank's brand carries institutional weight that its customer experience does not always match. That gap is a communication and culture problem as much as a product problem. The speakers in this group address the specific intersection that Standard Bank's leadership and brand function is navigating: how large institutions sustain narrative authority through leadership transitions, how brand promises are held consistently across 50,000 people in 20 countries, and how Africa's growth story is communicated with the credibility the continent demands.