Standard Chartered Bank announced it delivered a resilient and competitive performance for the year ended 31 December 2020 with Total Assets growth of 21.5% to Ugsh. 3,831 Bn and Customer deposits growth of 27.1% to Ugsh 2,712 Bn in 2020.
Mr Albert Saltson, Standard Chartered Bank Chief Executive Officer while commenting on the Bank’s performance said:
“Our performance remained buoyant in the face of the extraordinary challenges posed by the pandemic and associated economic contraction. We made good progress on our strategic initiatives and our financial performance was overall very resilient. As we look to the future, I am fully confident that the foundations we have built will help us deliver our strategic priorities and further strengthen our client proposition and performance. In 2020, we continued to take significant steps to reshape our business and focused on supporting our employees, communities and clients leveraging our digital channels, having deep engagements with our affluent clients, tight risk management and cost control, improving our productivity and continued to leverage our global network to support our clients.”
He added; Our purpose is what sets us apart; “we drive commerce and prosperity through our unique diversity”. Our deep-rooted heritage of 108 years in Uganda and values are reflected in our deep understanding of the market and our clients’ needs, high standards of corporate governance and our experience and expertise in managing risk. We continued to partner with others in fighting financial crime and strive to continuously achieve the highest standards of conduct, consistent with our brand promise; ‘Here for good’.”
Performance highlights included:
- Total assets were Ugsh 3,831 Bn, a growth of 21.5%
- Customers’ deposits were Ugsh 2,712 Bn, a growth of 27.1%
- Total Income was Ugsh 429.9 Bn, a decrease of 6.8%
- Net profits before tax was Ugsh. 72.8 Bn, a decrease of 41.6%
Commenting on the Bank’s performance, Kelvin Musana, the Chief Financial Officer, Standard Chartered Bank Uganda had this to say:
“Our 2020 financial performance is a reflection of our great resilience in the midst of the effects of the pandemic and related economic slowdown. With our significant investments in technology, prudent cost and risk controls as well as robust systems, we remain optimistic, solid, competitive and are on the right track. Although we still have some way to go in an environment that is still uncertain, we expect to come out of 2021 with better momentum.”
Godfrey Sebaana, Head, Corporate, Commercial and Institutional Banking while commenting on the progress made in his business in 2020 had this to say;
“Our Corporate & Institutional Banking business in 2020 continued to build capacity to serve the Global subsidiaries, institutional service providers as well offer banking and financing solutions to institutional and corporate clients’ employees. In 2020 we participated in financing key development programs to promote import substitution such as industrial hubs and parks and we provided sovereign solutions to finance key projects particularly for the infrastructure, water and energy sectors. We also recorded an increase in the adoption of our digital channels with close to 90% of our clients migrating their transactions to our world class straight2Bank digital platform and our Corporate Finance proposition recorded growth as we successfully delivered a wide range of solutions to our clients along with several complex, event-based transactions.
As a progressive business that is client centric, we will continue adopting new skills and a new mindset and we are designing targeted interventions that meet our clients’ current and future needs. The overriding objective therefore being the provision of bespoke financial services to our clients with focus on trade finance, cash management, financial markets and corporate finance.”
On his part, Moses Rutahigwa the Head, Consumer, Private and Business Banking (CPBB), SCBU Commented on the Retail Banking Progress made in 2020 by saying:
“Our Retail Banking Business performance is testament to the strength of our business, having the right strategy and more importantly to our people. In 2020 our Wealth segment recorded 44% income growth while our assets under wealth management grew by 86% to Ugx 297Bn. We also grew our client base with new client numbers now up 6x and increased client engagements to ensure service is maintained seamlessly. This enabled us to achieve the best Net Promoter Score (NPS) of +62 in the market for the second time running. Customer usage of our digital platforms grew significantly in 2020 with digital transactions and Mobile wallet transfers registering growth of 34 % and 94% respectively. Our clients continued accessing up to 70 common services via our SC mobile App with 64% of these being processed straight through with no human intervention.”
Furthermore, in 2020 we launched several campaigns and products like the 3600 rewards program to give back to our clients whenever they use their cards, launched Motor Insurance on SC mobile, completed an upgrade of our website, invested in data sourcing and analytics capabilities so that we offer our clients timely and customized solutions and launched Agent banking to provide our clients with alternate channels for deposits and withdrawals.” Mr. Rutahigwa concluded.
Hilary Ndungutse, the Head, Human resources while commenting on the Bank’s People and Culture stated:
“In 2020, we focused on investing in the wellbeing of our employees to improve productivity and performance, including people leader tools and mental health support. New ways of working brought greater freedoms and benefits for some colleagues; for many, however, physical restrictions and a lack of social connection significantly affected their wellbeing. We are continuing to invest in wellbeing tools such as a mental health app, an upgraded employee assistance service, wellbeing toolkits for employees and people leaders, and learning programmes on mental health and resilience. The pandemic has reinforced how important our health and wellbeing strategy is so supporting employees with these skills is a long-term area of focus. Our People remain at the heart of our operations and our commitment to develop them remains resolute and unwavering. We are therefore listening to our employees’ preferences for greater flexibility in working arrangements post-pandemic.”
Regina Mukiri, Head, Corporate Affairs, Brand & Marketing summed up on the Bank’s Marketing and Sustainability agenda stating;
“2020 was a challenging year for everyone so we committed to go beyond banking to stand with our employees, clients and community to fight the devastating impact of COVID 19. To ease the financial impact of the pandemic on our clients, we unveiled various initiatives like; Repayment holidays, fee waivers, loan extensions and promoted our digital channels especially the SC Mobile App for individual clients and the Straight2Bank platform for Corporates and SMEs to enable easy access and seamless transactions. During this period, our clients also accessed $1 billion availed globally to help finance production of goods and services to help in the fight against COVID-19.
Finally, we focused on providing immediate emergency relief for communities as well as supporting the economic recovery by making relief donations that grossed Ugx 1.6 billion (USD 450M) through six NGOs that included; Uganda Red cross, UNICEF, Child fund International, Straight Talk Foundation, BRAC Uganda and YouBelong to mitigate the spread of Covid 19.”
