Over the past year, Standard Bank Group has put together a number of groundbreaking deals on behalf of our corporate clients around the world. One of these multi-million-US-dollar deals involved being the sole arranger of a US$15-million finance facility required by Agro Traders Ltd.

As one of Nigeria’s largest cocoa exporters. Agro Traders handles about 15% of the country’s cocoa output.

Standard Bank Group was announced the winner of “The New Economy” magazine’s award for Most Sustainable Bank (South Africa) during the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, at the end of January.

The awards demonstrate that the business case for sustainable banking remains strong, despite the current economic environment. The New Economy magazine says “sustainable banking should not be confused with charity but acknowledged as doing serious business whilst offering win-win solutions”.

In an effort to ease your mind in terms of the Trojan rumours, we want to give you a brief update;

· It is safe for all customers to use Standard Bank Internet Banking.
· Standard Bank can confirm that there is no Trojan on the Internet Banking portal.
· It appears that users with certain Kaspersky anti-virus products have been affected. The Kaspersky definitions contain an entry that falsely identifies legitimate functionality as malicious.

Stanlib, a member of Standard Bank Group and one of the largest managers of investments in South Africa, won seven Raging Bull Awards, mostly for its fixed income and property funds.

Jacko Maree, Chief Executive of Standard Bank Group, has been named by the Financial Times as one of the 50 emerging market business leaders who have helped shape the economic performance in their respective region.

The Financial Times, one of the world's leading financial publications, has identified 50 emerging market business leaders from a host of emerging market economies, a large number of whom are from BRIC countries - Brazil, Russia, India and China.

Standard Bank Group subscribes to The Equator Principles, which is a global benchmark for the financial industry to determine, assess and manage social and environmental risk in project financing.

The Equator Principles are based on the International Finance Corporation (IFC) performance standards on social and environmental sustainability; and on the World Bank Group’s Environmental, Health and Safety general guidelines that are applied globally and across all industry sectors by banks providing project finance.

The principles apply to all new project finance deals above US$10m.

At 4.30 this afternoon a man walked into the Sandridge Mall branch in Midrand with a suspicious package strapped to his body.

Ross Linstrom, Standard Bank media relations officer, said the branch staff immediately followed the security procedures required. The South African Police Services reacted promptly and the suspect was quickly arrested.

There were no hostages taken and no one was hurt. We would like to commend the police for their swift action.

Trauma counselors have been sent to the scene to assist shocked branch staff and customers.