Standard Bank
Standard Bank
What Standard Bank says about its journey towards integrated reporting
As an entity listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, Standard Bank Group was required for the first time to publish an integrated report in 2011. Initially, the integrated report was lengthy and divided over several books. We have since dedicated much time and effort to better understand the principles of integrated thinking and reporting, this has resulted in a more concise integrated report which better articulates our strategy in an integrated manner, in accordance with the requirements of the International <IR> Framework.
The requirement to publish an integrated report encouraged us to be more focused on integrated thinking and reporting. Integrated thinking contributed to the development of our five strategic value drivers in 2016, which are used to measure and explain our progress against our strategy. These strategic value drivers are underpinned by the six (integrated reporting) capitals and allows us to better articulate our value creation story and strategy.
An important element of these value drivers is that the outcome includes both financial results and social, environmental and economic (SEE) impacts. This illustrates that Standard Bank considers both financial and SEE as important outcomes of our strategy – an important shift from only financial results. The SEE impact areas were determined by identifying the overlap between our core business activities and the needs of Africa’s people, businesses and economies. We also considered the priority issues and targets contained in the UN’s Global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and South Africa’s National Development Plan.
These strategic value drivers have been embedded across the business thereby encouraging integrated thinking across the business.
Although we have published several integrated reports, our journey continues as we better understand what integrated thinking and reporting means for the group and how it enables us to better articulate our value creation story. We are encouraged by the commitment of other organisations to prepare integrated reports and continue to learn from others.
Read Standard Bank’s Annual Integrated report 2019 here.
About Standard Bank
Standard Bank Group is an African-focused, client-centric, digitally enabled and integrated financial services organisation. The organisation consists of over 1,200 branches, 9,321 ATMs, and 53,178 employees spread across 20 countries in the continent of Africa and with presence in international markets, such as Beijing, Dubai and New York. In, for and across Africa, our strategy is designed to realise the opportunities presented by Africa’s longer-term structural trends.