Business Talk – In conversation with Sim Tshabalala
Simphiwe Tshabalala is chief executive of the Standard Bank Group and executive director of Standard Bank South Africa, having served within the company for 20 years.
Having achieved a Bachelor of Laws degree at Rhodes University, Tshabalala’s tertiary education has taken him to the University of Notre Dam (LLM), University of the Witwatersrand (HDip Tax), and Harvard, where he completed an Advanced Management Programme.
He served his articles at Bowman Gilfillan, and was admitted as an attorney of the High Court of South Africa in 1994.
Tshabalala joined the group in 2000 in the project finance division of Standard Corporate and Merchant Bank and was appointed to group exco in 2001. Between 2001 and 2006, he was managing director of Stanbic Africa, and was appointed chief executive of Personal and Business Banking, South Africa in 2006.
In June 2008, he was appointed chief executive of Standard Bank SA. In March 2013, he was appointed joint group chief executive of Standard Bank Group, a position he held alongside Ben Kruger until Ben stepped down in September 2017.
On this episode of Business Talk with Michael Avery, Tshabalala discusses the direct impact Covid-19 has had on Standard Bank and the group’s staff including a big modernisation of the group’s structures.
He highlights the lender’s response to the pandemic, while he also believes some of the emerging trends in the industry will be accelerated post the pandemic. The banking lead enthuses about the rapid adoption of the group’s digital and mobile channels, and how the bank is evolving to facilitate customer patterns.
Tshabalala says that Standard Bank continues to launch new products and service to align and compete with its modern adversaries, new entrants and fintechs.
He sits on the Boards of the Liberty Group, Standard Bank’s subsidiary in Nigeria, Stanbic IBTC, the Banking Association of South Africa, on the board and Council of Business Leadership South Africa.
The full interview is embedded below. You can find all the Business Talk with Michael Avery interviews here.
