International banking group, Standard Chartered Bank says that its conservative approach to business is the reason why the bank has been successful over a long period of time and they are confident the strategy will continue to pay dividends in future.

At a media briefing that was held in Phakalane on Tuesday, Peter Sands, Group Chief Executive Officer of Standard chartered bank PLC, which is the major shareholder in Standard Chartered Botswana, said it's the banking group strategy not to take a lot of risk in business and to be cautious.

Responding to a question from Mmegi Business Week on whether the strategy is still effective especially in Botswana where Standard Chartered has been overtaken by other aggressive and risk taking banks , Sands who is based in London , defended the group's conservative strategy saying " it is the reason why we have been in banking for such a long time,"

"It is very easy in banking to look good for a short time by relaxing your risk management controls . But if you want to be a successful bank and a solid partner to companies and individuals in an economy over a long period , you have to take risks but you also have to be very cautious as well.

"We operate in over 70 markets all over the world and the reality is that this has been a very successful strategy," he said .

For a six month period stretching from January to June 30, StanChart Botswana's highly conservative approach to business did not help as its profits were 13 percent lower while Barclays and First National, which are more relaxed in their lending, reaped huge rewards from retail banking where interest income contributed significantly to their growth.

For his part, David Cutting, Stanchart Botswana CEO said that his bank has come full circle in the banking business in Botswana as they were the first to invent risky products such as 'No Mathata' loans.

"The question now is when you ride a wave , you have to know when to get off it and it has to be before it reaches the beach and this is exactly what we have done.

"There shall come a time when we shall be more aggressive. It is not a permanent strategy but it's the way we see it now.

" It is not about being the biggest , it is about being the best," he said.

Commenting on the importance of the African market to the banking group Gareth Bullock - Standard Chartered Bank -Group Executive Director, Africa, Middle East, Europe and the Americas, said that Africa along with Asia are very much central to the core business of the bank.

"We have been in Africa for a long time and 112 years here in Botswana and just two weeks ago we were opening our 14th branch here in Africa- in Angola.

"The core of our strategy is leading the way in Africa , Asia and the Middle East and then let the three market complement each other. Africa is where our DNA and our history is," said Bullock who is also based in London.

At the conference, Sands also said that the bank has managed to come out of the financial crisis unscathed .

"We have taken no support from the state, neither capital or liquidity, actually we have weathered the crisis.

" We delivered record profits in 2008 and the first half of 2009 and we recently revealed a trading statement reflecting that we will continue to make profits in future," he added.

On the issue of competition in Botswana, Cutting said he welcomed the opening of the latest bank, ABN Amro Botswana as competition is always healthy especially from the customers.

"The only challenge is that we might not be able to grow as fast as we might want. But overall competition keeps us on our toes and our value proposition is that there is no other bank in this country that can offer customers a wider global network facility as much as we do," he added.