Stanbic Named Best Private Bank in Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana

By Victor Kiprop

Standard Bank was named the best private bank in Kenya in the 2017 Global Private Banking Awards held in Singapore last week, in recognition of its wealth investment and management arms.

Stanbic Bank Kenya, a division of South Africa-based Standard Bank, was recognised as Kenya's best private bank for the third consecutive year.

The awards were organised by the Banker & Professional Wealth Management magazines, publications of the Financial Times Group: Five African countries took part.

"This recognition is testimony to our solid track record of providing bespoke solutions that are globally relevant, yet attuned to our clients' dreams, goals and ambitions," said Anjali Harkoo, Stanbic Bank Kenya's head of wealth and investment.

"We have grown our wealth and investment business through the good word of our customers, which is testament to the fact that we service them and their families well. As a business, our focus remains goal-driven plans that take a long-term view of investments, while catering for short-term lifestyle needs," Ms Harkoo said.

Standard Bank was also ranked as the best private bank in Nigeria and Ghana in the competition that involved 125 banks from countries around the world in this year.

Chris Browne, the bank's global head of wealth and investment, said their value proposition is based on defining clients' wealth quotient, which involves assessing each aspect of their "total wealth needs" to offer personalised services.

"This approach helps position our solutions and offerings in a way that is astute, pragmatic and empowering, rather than standardised, irrelevant and impersonal," Mr Browne said.

The annual awards evaluate banks on the progress made in their business growth strategy, how they boost inflows and profits by assessing factors such as corporate and growth strategies, customer relationship management and the extent to which the institutions align their portfolio management and product strategy to the needs of their clients.

MCB Bank and Investec Bank were named the best private banks in Mauritius and South Africa respectively.

Private banking is a set of personalised financial and banking services that are traditionally offered to the bank's high net worth individuals.

According to the Knight Frank wealth report, the past decade has witnessed sharp upsurge in the number of Hsuch individuals in Africa, which has seen increased demand for private banking services to meet their sophisticated financial needs.

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