The Pula flowed big time for Standard Chartered Bank Botswana in 2023, with the bank raking in revenue of P1 billion over the course of the year.

This eye-watering amount saw Standard’s Profit Before Tax sitting at P403 million – a 59 percent increase from the P253 million recorded in 2022.

The impressive performance was driven by focusing on high returning products and achieving double digit growth across the segments of corporate, commercial and institutional banking.

By employing more efficiency measures, the bank improved its cost to income ratio to 64 percent, resulting in a record of one of the highest growth rates on profitability in the market.

Delivering the financial results on Thursday, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mpho Masupe said the strength of their digital strategy has helped propel the bank to new heights.

“Our strong financial performance was driven by the execution of our ambitious three-year strategy, which is currently in its second year and proving to be relevant in this dynamic operating environment. The Bank’s three-year strategy seeks to optimize our distribution model through partnerships, drive our brand visibility, enhance employee experience, deliver client centric services and solutions, and maintain high double-digit Return on Tangible Equity,” said Masupe.

The consumer, private & business banking (CPBB) segment continued to make strides in its key strategic priorities of being a digital-first bank for the personal banking segment by harnessing technology to offer payments, financing and wealth management solutions.

Income from affluent and business client segments grew by 49 and 25 percent respectively thanks to a focused product approach on unique wealth offering.

“In 2023, the bank was able to derive value from our existing client base by offering an enhanced client value proposition. As we continue to enhance our first and best in class digital capabilities, we have pivoted to driving our affluent proposition and leverage our strength as a go to Bank for mining and sustainable finance advisory services, aligning to the national priorities for 2024,”explained Masupe.

Up from 75 percent in 2022, digital adoption reached 80 percent indicating that 95 percent of transactions are processed through non-branch channels such as Eazy Pula.

Further, up to 70 services are availed online while 92 percent of non-financial service requests were processed online.