Bank homes in on Chinese clients in Africa

Standard chartered tailors services to better serve company operations

Soaring trade volume between China and Africa in recent years has forced international and African banks to launch financial and banking services specifically for Chinese customers on the continent.

Standard Chartered Bank in particular has expanded its services rapidly. In early May, it introduced specialized services targeting the Chinese business community in Nairobi, Kenya. Bank services will be conducted in both Chinese and English.

"Our bank is dedicated to launching more tailored services to Chinese customers in Africa," says Raheel Ahmed, Standard Chartered Bank's regional head of consumer banking in the Middle East, Pakistan and Africa.

"The China-Africa trade corridor is expanding rapidly, becoming one of the fastest trade corridors in the world now."

Ahmed says the Chinese community is an under-served community in Africa's financial sector.

Standard Charter's advantage is in its ability to attract Chinese clients because of the bank's history in both African and Chinese markets, he adds.

"Thus we are in a unique position to support this trade corridor, either at the corporate or individual level," he says. "Standard Charter is represented in 16 African countries and has more than 180 branches across the continent now."

Ahmed says Standard Charter took the step to provide services for Chinese customers in Africa about four to five years ago. Recently, however, the bank has encountered a higher demand from its growing base of customers.

"In the past we were not focusing on the Chinese community, but now I think it's going to grow to a large scale and become a fully dedicated unit," he says. "We have 12 to 13 Chinese client managers working with our Chinese customers in different African countries. All financial services and problems will be solved by Chinese-speaking employees."

Chinese specialists can be found in the bank's franchises in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Botswana and Zambia. The bank expects to recruit more talent to this project.

The reason that Chinese businessmen in Africa are under-served is because their needs are different from other communities, Ahmed claims.

However, he says international bankers are optimistic about Africa-China ties.

"China has sent a strong signal about its investments in Africa. Chinese President Xi Jinping made his first overseas visit to in Africa and I think the partnership is much more focused on the long term."

Ahmed says the key to bilateral ties is with the Chinese private sector.

"You will see more private sector contributions to this relationship. In the past it was more government-to-government bilateral trade, but now, taking Kenya as an example, around 30,000 Chinese are actually doing business across all sectors," he says.

Standard Chartered is handling business with both large corporations and small companies from China, though Ahmed says more small companies will be providing a larger share of investments.

"We are part of the retail bank so now we are going to focus on small- and medium-size enterprises in Africa," he says. "We will offer them trade facilities, loans and transaction convenience to meet their financial needs.

"Based on our research, we found Chinese customers are more likely to have a single relationship manager. The second thing is that they feel more comfortable with someone who understands them better because sometimes they lose in translation how you explain a product or how you understand a process."

He adds that Chinese customers are very demanding in terms of prices and fees for services.

"And also they need Chinese currency clearance, which is less likely to be done by other banks, but we are willing to provide this to our customers," says Ahmed, who adds Standard Chartered is looking into providing international services from China.

lilianxing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily Africa Weekly 06/21/2013 page15)