Africa's best bank for markets 2017: Standard Chartered

Last year’s winner of best for markets in Africa – Standard Bank – was unable to hold off competition from Standard Chartered this year. With its 56 people-strong Africa sales team and trading team of 28 – making it the largest on the ground – Standard Chartered was difficult to beat.

The bank is a primary dealer in Botswana, Ghana, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia and South Africa. Standard Chartered executed $875 million of local currency swaps and cross-currency swaps in the last year. Its foreign exchange swap volume was up 89%.

Through its digital offering Straight2Bank, Standard Chartered has expanded its business and its ways of doing things. The e-commerce platform experienced growth in eight out of 12 countries, with an increase in active clients compared with a year ago, including South Africa (up 107%), Tanzania (550%), Cameroon (319%), Mauritius (139%) and Nigeria (115%).