Standard Bank’s transformation initiatives in South Africa have been positively acknowledged by Empowerdex, the economic empowerment rating agency.
We have been “AA” rated a Level Three Contributor (overall score of 75.77 out of 100) in terms of South Africa’s Department of Trade and Industry’s Code of Good Practice. We scored well in areas such as enterprise development, procurement and socio-economic development.
Our Empowerdex rating is an indication that we are making good progress towards achieving our transformation objectives, and demonstrates the connections we've made with our employees and customers. However, we acknowledge that we still have a lot of work to do and remain as committed as ever to transformation.
Standard Bank has played a meaningful role in the transformation of South Africa - we were one of the architects of the Financial Sector Charter, which was launched in 2004 to actively transform the financial sector to better reflect the demographics of South Africa and to provide access to financial services to marginalised South Africans. In 2008, the first interim target year specified in the charter, we achieved a score of 97 out of 100 compared to 53 out of 100 in 2004.
This AA rating is a tribute to all our dedicated employees and their continued commitment to helping bring about fundamental changes in our society.