Standard Bank’s CEO and CFO will retire in 2027, even though the executive retirement age has been raised
The Standard Bank Group has declared that its Chief Executive Officer, Sim Tshabalala, and Chief Financial Officer, Arno Daehnke, will retire by the end of 2027, even though the bank’s executive retirement policy has recently changed.
On Thursday, the bank announced that it has raised the typical executive retirement age from 60 to 63 years old. Nevertheless, Tshabalala and Daehnke will continue to be subject to the current retirement age of 60, thus the new limit will not apply to them. Planning for the group’s long-term leadership succession includes the transfer.
Both Daehnke, who was appointed CFO in 2016, and Tshabalala, who has been the bank’s leader since 2013, have been instrumental in Standard Bank’s expansion. Standard Bank said in a statement that Sim and Arno’s contributions over the course of more than ten years have been crucial to the bank’s expansion.
The news was made as the biggest lender in Africa in terms of assets released impressive 2025 first-half performance. In comparison to the same time last year, when headline earnings increased by 8% to 23.8 billion rand ($1.36 billion) from 22 billion rand, return on equity improved to 19.1% from 18.5%.
At the middle of the morning, the Johannesburg-listed bank’s stock was up almost 3%.
