Standard Bank has taken a broad approach to its empowerment objectives and has chosen to include strategic partners, staff and managers, small and medium businesses and the community as a whole.

Jacko Maree, CEO of Standard Bank, says when the company embarked on empowerment it did so to fulfill its obligations under the financial services charter.“This gave us the guidance we needed and determined the size of the overall transaction to earn an appropriate number of points. Having arrived at the point where we knew we would be disposing of about 10% (currently valued at over R7bn) of our South African operations, we set about doing so in a manner that would produce the most benefit for our shareholders and that, over time, would produce the best result for the business,â€