South African banks are increasingly going digital, ramping up their online and mobile operations. Moreover, the emergence of digital-only banking options has stirred up competition in the banking sector. Picture: Henk Kruger Independent Newspapers
Standard Bank is still maintaining physical banking points despite a 30% rise in digital and online transactions over the first half year to June 2024.
For its 2024 first half year, Standard Bank recorded earnings of R22 billion, “underpinned by strong underlying organic growth”, which was “driven by increasingly digital clients and growing client” franchises.
This came as in-branch transactions decreased by 13% to around 2.5 million transactions on the back of the increased shift to digital channels by the bank’s South African depositors.
Online transactions for the bank increased by 30% to 1.5 billion transactions.
“Standard Bank clients perform(ed) an average of 10 400 digital transactions per month, compared to just 0.017 transactions in branches. ATM transactions have also increased by 8% to 104 million transactions,” the finance institution said yesterday.
This was reflective of “customers’ preferences changing rapidly”, said Kabelo Makeke, head of personal and private banking at Standard Bank South Africa.
South African banks are increasingly going digital, ramping up their online and mobile operations. Moreover, the emergence of digital-only banking options has stirred up competition in the banking sector.
Standard Bank is, however, maintaining a firm presence of its physical banking points despite the increased uptake of digital banking options.
Over the past year, Standard Bank – despite reducing its branch square metres by 4%, to 239 000 square metres in the last year – did not reduce the “number of points of representation”, which stands at 654.
“Standard Bank has over the last five years actively planned the way it adapts to the rapidly-changing digital environment, but also to reduce the impact on staff and customers as the changing nature of banking evolves. In this time, the bank has actively reduced the average square metre size of its branches each year, with a minimal impact on jobs,” it said.
According to Makeke, the financial institution is geared to meet customer demands on both digital platforms and physical offerings.
“By adapting our branch network and enhancing our digital capabilities, we are ensuring that we remain responsive to our customers’ needs and preferences,” said Makeke.
Over the interim period to June 2024, Standard Bank’s mobile app “saw a 13% increase in number of clients and greater than 140 million logins per month”.
This had resulted in a 33% increase in digital revenue from transactional and value-added services on the mobile application.
Standard Bank’s continued investment in digital capabilities to transform client experience drove up operating expenses for the period by 3%, to R15.1bn.
Other major operating expense drivers included an elevated inflationary environment for the period, depreciation of local currencies against US dollar-denominated costs, and increased business activity across the firm’s portfolio.
BUSINESS REPORT