Standard Bank CEO Sim Tshabalala is backing the group’s long-held tradition of “growing its own timber” to inform discussions around who will eventually succeed him when he retires at the tail end of 2027.
Tshabalala has been at the helm of Africa’s largest bank by assets since 2013. As a board member, he will weigh in on who succeeds him. “The history of Standard Bank, going back decades, has been internal appointments. We grow our own timber at Standard Bank,” he said.
The bank has a long history of tapping insiders for the CEO role in carefully managed succession plans. In its 162-year history, the lender with R3.4-trillion in assets has had only one external hire for the group CEO role, Robert Stewart.
“All other CEOs like the great Lewis Mitchell, who served in the role between 1896 to 1902, the inimitable Henri de Villiers, who occupied the office from 1973 to 1985, and my beloved Jacko Maree [1999 to 2013], were all picked from inside,” Tshabalala said.
The group’s chair, Nonkululeko Nyembezi, who will play a role in who becomes the group’s chief, has also hailed the group’s ability to grow its own talent pipeline.
“Management succession is also a multiyear endeavour, and the board is satisfied that it is receiving sufficient attention both at a board and management level, with a particular focus on growing our own timber in-country and at a group level,” she wrote in a letter to shareholders published in the group's 2024 annual report.
The board will also be seized with finding a suitable replacement for group CFO Arno Daehnke, who will also retire in 2027.
The announcement by the group, worth more than R400bn on the JSE, squashed speculation that Tshabalala would stay longer in the role, after the group increased the retirement age of its executives to 63 years in June, joining similar moves by rivals Nedbank and Absa.
“The decision, taken in line with the group’s leadership succession planning, means that both Mr Tshabalala and Mr Daehnke will continue under the existing retirement age of 60,” the company said in a statement released on the day it published its interim results.
Under Tshabalala’s leadership, the bank has grown its Africa Regions portfolio, which now constitutes more than 40% of the group’s earnings.
In 2012, gross loans from the rest of Africa represented 13% of Standard Bank’s loan book, and today that has grown to about 20%. The Africa Regions’ deposit liabilities in 2012 contributed only 15% to Standard Bank but that has now grown to more than 20%. Over the years, the group has increased the capital it deploys to African regions. It consumed only 15% of total capital deployed by the group in 2012, but this has grown to more than 25%.
News of the orderly succession process, coupled with strong interim results, resulted in the group’s share price rallying almost 3% by the close on Thursday.
Tshabalala has been at the helm of Africa’s largest lender by assets since 2013, first as a joint CEO alongside Ben Kruger before taking sole control of the group in 2017.
SA’s banks are undergoing a transition period, with most lenders led by new leaders. The country’s largest retail bank by customer numbers, Capitec, has recently undergone a leadership change after the retirement of highly successful Gerrie Fourie, who handed the reins of the company to Graham Lee. Nedbank CEO Jason Quinn has been in the role for just more than a year, while former Standard Bank executive Kenny Fihla’s tenure as Absa chief is about two months old.
The resignation of Fihla from Standard Bank left a void in the role of CEO of SA business and Africa regions, critical roles that had been assigned to him. Tshabalala stepped in to fill the role of Standard Bank CEO on an interim basis, with Lungisa Fuzile filling the role of Africa Regions and Offshore CEO on an interim basis.
Update: August 14 2025
This story has more background information.
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