The bank’s latest financial results published on Thursday show the scale of the opportunity. Domestic payment values rose 11% in the first half of 2026, while cross-border values increased 7%. The bank held a 30% share of South Africa’s cross-border payments and 19% across Africa, making it the continent’s largest transactional franchise by payment value.

The growth comes as payments become an integral part of how banks capture value from Africa’s digital economy. Standard Bank says its payments business is supporting deposit growth, merchant acquiring, cross-border fee income and value-added services. Its Africa Regions business contributed R10.4 billion ($644.4 million) or 40% of group headline earnings in the first half of 2026.

The bank’s results suggest that its payments strategy is about more than moving customers from branches to apps. By connecting consumers and businesses to domestic and cross-border commerce, Standard Bank is using digital transactions to deepen customer relationships and create new sources of fee income.

“Standard Bank delivered a strong performance in the first half of 2026,” said Sim Tshabalala, the group’s chief executive officer (CEO). He pointed to “strong client-led growth in non-interest revenue” and said Africa Regions contributed 40% of group headline earnings.

Tshabalala also stated that South Africa needs to deepen its economic integration with the rest of the continent to fully participate in Africa’s growth opportunity.

That change is already visible in the bank’s South African retail business. Digital retail transactional clients increased 9% in the first half, while digital transactional volumes jumped 17%. By June, 69% of Standard Bank’s transactional clients were using digital channels.

Behind the shift is a broader technology push. Standard Bank says 72% of its employees were active users of generative AI tools by June, with 87 AI use cases approved across the group. Its artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled recommendation systems supported more than 10 million personalised client interactions during the six-month period.

The bank has also migrated 78% of its computing infrastructure to the cloud, giving it a scalable base for deploying AI across customer-facing and employee workflows. Standard Bank was ranked the leading bank in Africa in the inaugural Evident AI Index for Banks—Middle East and Africa, published in June.

Payments, digital banking and AI are becoming important to the lender’s expansion across the continent. The group ended the first half with 19.5 million active clients, while headline earnings rose 10% to R26.1 billion ($1.6 billion) and return on equity improved to 19.8%.

The bank is also putting more capital behind its continental ambitions. It invested additional capital in Standard Bank Tanzania in July and plans to increase its stake in Standard Bank Angola in the second half of the year, strengthening its presence in two markets it identifies as attractive growth opportunities.

“Looking forward, Africa is expected to grow ahead of most regions, and the opportunities across the continent remain significant. At the same time, competition is intensifying, regulations are evolving, and technology is advancing rapidly,” said Tshabalala. “Recent global volatility has reinforced the value of this diversified franchise.”

That puts Standard Bank in a fiercely competitive race for Africa’s digital transaction flows. A Mastercard-commissioned Genesis Analytics report projects the continent’s payments market will reach (R27 trillion) $1.5 trillion by 2030. 

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