By Liesl Peyper.
Standard Bank Group CEO Sim Tshabalala has pushed back against a recent Moody’s Ratings assessment, which flagged the bank’s exposure to South African government debt as a potential risk to its credit profile.
“We respectfully wonder what data they were using to get to that conclusion, “Tshabalala said, speaking at the final panel discussion of the group’s Africa Unlocked Conference 2025.
The two-day conference, held at the Norval Foundation in the southern suburbs of Cape Town, is a leading pan-African event that convenes some of the most influential business leaders from across the continent and the globe.
Bongani Bingwa, who facilitated the panel discussion, asked Tshabalala to weigh in on a report on Tuesday, citing Moody’s concern that Standard Bank’s high investment in sovereign bonds closely ties its credit outlook to that of the South African government.
Tshabalala responded that the proportion of government debt on Standard Bank’s book is not greater than that of its competitors. “In fact, it’s less.”
He added that the bank holds government debt largely for prudential reasons. “Investors, in fact, have asked us why we don’t take advantage of the yield pick up by holding more government debt.”
He also defended the group’s broader risk approach: “We don’t believe in armchair banking at Standard Bank – we’ve deployed our balance sheet to the real economy and our clients.”
Standard Bank plans to engage directly with Moody’s, Tshabalala confirmed, saying the group’s data “does not support the negative conclusions they reached.”