Awards for Excellence 2020
At a time of global economic retrenchment, dollar volatility, slowing trade flows and border closures, Africa needs deeper localization of markets and financing. Standard Bank’s expertise in these fields makes it the clear choice for best investment bank in Africa this year.
Answering growing demand for local currency financing, the bank launched a multicurrency facility (MCF) in 2019; it is the bank’s fastest growing product and the first product of its kind in Africa.
“We’re seeing a growing desire for local-currency financing,” says head of investment banking in the Africa region, Anne Aliker. “The old reservation about interest-rate differentials between dollars and local currency is really starting to hurt clients as currencies depreciate. So concerns over convertibility and transferability have been highlighted by some clients.”
In response to these concerns at Old Mutual Emerging Markets Proprietary Ltd, Standard Bank structured an MCF that provided the client with access to local in-country liquidity in multiple currencies. This means that corporate treasurers can fund locally in one transaction instead of multiple transactions in different jurisdictions.