Johannesburg — STANDARD Bank yesterday announced two major appointments to head its SA and international corporate and investment banking activities, to further its growth strategy. Kennedy Bungane was appointed the unit's SA CE . He takes over from David Munro, who has been appointed the global head of investment banking. Standard Bank operates in 32 countries. Munro will remain in SA.

Bungane, the deputy CE , takes up the reins to head the group's corporate and investment banking activities in SA. He will report to Standard Bank SA CE Sim Tshabalala. Munro will build the unit's global capability across all its investment banking product lines and develop its global coverage model .

The appointments follow last week's announcement of the new chairman-elect Fred Phaswana, who will take over the chairmanship from Derek Cooper when Cooper retires in May next year.

Bungane said the focus at the unit this year had been improving liquidity, preserving capital and managing risk and "this continues to be the case ... we've been helping our clients through this period".

"Bungane is still very young -- 34 -- to hold such a key position, but much is expected of him. Corporate and Investment Banking has done well relative to its competitors in terms of profitability and efficiency. Kennedy will be tasked with preserving and improving on this," said Tshabalala.