CEO UPBRAIDS INTERNATIONAL BANKS

A top African banking executive has criticised the way in which some international banks do business in Africa. Mr Craig Bond, the chief executive of Standard Bank Africa, said that only a few global companies, including his employer, Barclays and Standard Chartered Bank had real roots in the continent, using local branches and employing local people.

Too many international banks, Mr Bond said, were only interested in quick deals in Africa, and he labelled such people ‘briefcase bankers.’

“They are only chasing the big infrastructure deals,” Mr Bond told the Financial Times newspaper. “Their strategy is: Why the hell build branches and hire locals? Lets get two blokes in with a briefcase out of the office in say Germany or the UK or New York. Fly them in. Let them do the deal and out they fly.

“I sit next to them (international bankers) on planes and they say: What a place! I don’t know how you work here.”

Aggressive strategy

Standard Chartered is pursuing an aggressive strategy of mergers in Nigeria and Ghana in an effort to expand its share of the market in which it is already the biggest player with a market cap of $18 billion. “We realise that we may be the biggest bank in Africa, but to have a meaningful footprint, we have to be the biggest bank in the biggest economies,” Mr Bond said.

“The briefcase bankers are in and out, hopefully from their perspective never to be seen again. But the guys prepared to get the scars on their backs will make good decisions and be glad they came to Africa.”

The Standard Bank CEO also says that while business remains difficult in For Africa, these are the rosiest investment opportunities for some years. “Africa is a key part of our business,” he said.



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Strong revenues boost StanChart

A Sh400 million increase in Standard Chartered Bank Kenya’s half-year profit was largely due to a 13 per cent increase in its revenues. Due to an error in yesterday’s Nation, we had put the profit increase at Sh400,000.

The pre-tax profit rose by 21 per cent to Sh2.3 billion, up from Sh1.9 billion for a similar period in 2006.

Revenues grew to Sh4.5 billion, up from Sh4 billion.

“....Competitive rates on personal loans have contributed significantly to our overall loans portfolio,” said the bank’s chief executive officer, Richard Etemesi. The board of directors declared a first interim dividend of Sh2.50 per share.



SOURCE: DAILY NATION