Published: February 1, 2017
Making Africa Great
EMEA Finance talks to Standard Chartered Bank’s new business banking head in Africa about the challenges faced in cash management and trade as well as the opportunities for growth.
Saif Malik has been appointed regional head of global banking Africa at Standard Chartered Bank in a role where he envisages challenges related to liquidity management and foreign exchange across the continent as well as opportunities to roll out new products.
Malik, who has been head of institutional clients with the bank in Johannesburg for the last year, previously spent four years with Standard Chartered Bank in Malaysia, and has also held senior banking positions in Tanzania, Nigeria and Zambia.
He plans to use his experiences in Malaysia to help Standard Chartered Bank in its ambitions to promote Islamic finance across the African continent: “In Africa, we already offer Islamic finance products in Kenya, given the large Muslim population. We will continue to consider opportunities to expand Islamic banking to other African markets, but we need to be thorough in exploring local market appetite and regulatory frameworks.”