SECTION A [40 MARKS] Read the article below and answer ALL the questions that follow. Standard Bank Group To Reveal 2025 Ambition During Virtual Strategy Update For Investors And Analysts Standard Bank Group (Standard Bank) will host a strategic update event via webcast for investors and analysts today, 20 August. During the webcast, members of the Group Leadership Council will outline the Groups 2025 Ambition and provide an update on its client segment and capability strategies and guidance on future financial targets. Prepared presentations will begin at 11:00 a.m. (SAST) followed by a Q&A session. Standard Bank Group 2025 Ambition Standard Bank has made significant structural changes to better serve clients, and as of this year is primarily organised into three client segments: Consumer and High Net Worth clients Business and Commercial clients and Wholesale clients. Each of the three Client Segments is equally supported by its Client Solutions, Engineering, and Innovation capabilities. These shifts have allowed the group to realise a more integrated and seamless delivery of financial services to our diverse customer base, reduce time and cost to serve, and to innovate more quickly and efficiently. This operating structure will enable Standard Bank to transform from its current state as a trusted financial services provider across sub-Saharan Africa, to achieve its 2025 Ambition of being a platform business. By building out from its solid foundation in traditional financial services, the group will meet its clients on the digital platforms where they are shopping, socialising and doing business. Standard Bank will accomplish this by driving or contributing to ecosystems coordinated networks of participants and devices combining its own offerings with those of partners, enabling clients and producers to fulfil a broad range of needs seamlessly. For example, Standard Bank is currently partnering with agricultural input suppliers and wholesale crop purchasers to link Africas small farmers to global supply chains and markets the OneFarm ecosystem. Standard Bank has identified and prioritised 10 ecosystems that it will drive or contribute to, including agriculture, that are closely adjacent to what it already does in traditional financial services, and where it can add value based on existing capacities and expertise. Standard Banks three strategic priorities underpin everything it does, narrowing its focus and increasing the probability of executing quickly and with impact: 1. Transform client experience: Standard Bank will aim to understand its clients as deeply and empathetically as it can, and then to use human skill and digital capacities to help meet their needs and to enable them to achieve their goals. 2. Execute with excellence: Standard Bank will deliver innovative and cost-effective products and services itself and in partnership with others. 3. Drive sustainable growth and value: Enabled by the first two strategic priorities, the group will deliver sustainable growth and value to mean both long-term and environmentally and socially sustainable. CEO Sim Tshabalala said: We have an almost 160-year history of serving clients and supporting economic development in Africa. Today, we are the largest financial services group on the continent, with powerful scale advantages and strengths. We will continue leveraging these advantages to defend and grow our current position in the market, while accelerating toward our 2025 Ambition of becoming a client-centric, digitally-enabled platform business that can compete and win in a world where competitive lines are constantly redrawn and constant innovation and reinvention is imperative to succeed. Standard Bank Group 2025 Financial Targets Standard Bank Group has set bold financial targets in line with its 2025 Ambition. Highlights of the financial targets to be addressed during the strategic update include: Revenue growth of 7 to 9 percent a year, with revenue from new business models growing more quickly than those from banking, investment and insurance Credit loss ratio within the groups through-the-cycle range of 70 and 100 basis points Cost-to-income ratio trending toward 50 percent Common equity tier 1 capital adequacy ratio above 11 percent and Return on equity target range of between 17 and 20 percent. Mr Tshabalala added, The financial targets were outlining today are our most important goal, and as such they are challenging but realistic. With a great team of highly motivated and skilled leaders and swift implementation of our revised strategy, Im confident that we will deliver for our clients and shareholders. Adapted from: Anon, 2023. Standard Bank Group To Reveal 2025 Ambition During Virtual Strategy Update For Investors And Analysts. [Online] Available from: https://www.standardbank.com/sbg/standard-bank-group/whats-happening/newsroom/standardbank-group-to-reveal-2025-Ambition-during-virtual-strategy-update-for-investors-and-analysts [Accessed March 2023] Answer ALL the questions in this section.

QUESTION 1 (5 Marks) Considering the information in the article, clearly outline why the Standard Bank is still standing in 2023.

QUESTION 2 (10 Marks) Keep in mind Standard Banks strategic priorities and financial targets. Critically discuss the importance of these goals to Standard Bank.

QUESTION 3 (25 Marks) The financial targets were outlining today are our most important goal, and as such they are challenging but realistic. With a great team of highly motivated and skilled leaders and swift implementation of our revised strategy, Im confident that we will deliver for our clients and shareholders. Implementation has been said to be the most challenging step in the strategic management process. With this statement in mind and considering the statement above, suggest how Tshabalala can implement the new strategy successfully.