01-11-2012: Joburg and Standard Bank in new banking partnership
The City of Johannesburg has awarded its new banking tender to Standard Bank South Africa. “We took this decision because we believe Standard Bank best understands our requirements as a progressive municipality as we head into the future” says Mr Trevor Fowler the City Manager of Johannesburg.
Fowler added that the tender signals a partnership that aims to “transcend the normal banker to business relationship” into a strategic partnership with a joint vision steeped in the aspirations of the Joburg 2040 GDS strategy.
In terms of the mandate Standard Bank will provide the City with transactional banking services for the next five years. This includes payments, collections and liquidity management; property management; and comprehensive banking services for municipal employees.
Standard Bank will also partner with the City on various socio-economic transformation initiatives which can only auger well for the City as a whole.
“Standard Bank has been an integral part of Johannesburg for 126 years. We are delighted to be appointed official bankers to the City and believe that this partnership will benefit all Johannesburg’s citizens,” says Crofton McLaughlin, Head of Sales at Transactional Banking Services, Standard Bank South Africa.
In line with the City’s objectives, Standard Bank has committed to partner the City in:
• Driving efficiency and sustainability
• Optimizing revenue collection
• Optimally managing cash flows both for operational and capital budgets
• Effectively managing transformation; and
• Ensuring service delivery.
For customers making deposit at a Standard Bank branch, a unique Customer Identify Number (CIN) for Standard Bank branch deposits has been allocated to the City of Johannesburg.
Customers will be required to insert the CIN no AA45 in place of the account number and statement reference will be a unique “customer reference number” for the bill being paid.
In the case of ATM payment and telephone banking, customers are urged to make arrangement with their bank to link the pre-approved beneficiary details they have on their banking system for City of Johannesburg to their card that will be used to access ATM and telephone banking services. The beneficiary reference will be the customer’s unique customer reference number for the bill being paid.
Customers using internet banking payments will need to delete any current beneficiary details they have linked on Internet Banking for City of Johannesburg. Only the pre-loaded City of Johannesburg Company Beneficiary details supplied by the customer’s internet banking system should be used. Again the beneficiary reference will be the customer’s unique customer reference number for the bill being paid.
To minimise fraudulent acts no banking details will be supplied; the banking details for City of Johannesburg are registered with the customer’s bank.
The City’s annual budget including that of its Municipal Entities amounts to R37.6 billion, R 33.4 billion being operational expenditure and R 4.2 billion being capital expenditure.
Standard Bank’s association with Johannesburg began in 1886 when it became the first bank to open a branch on 11 October in what was called Ferreira’s Camp which later became known as Johannesburg.
Mr. McLaughlin reiterated Standard Bank’s commitment to Johannesburg and to serving all its people. He says, “Our head office is in downtown Johannesburg where we employ about 10 500 permanent staff. In addition, we make a major contribution to Johannesburg’s fiscus in terms of revenue and taxes. Johannesburg is an exciting, vibrant and dynamic city and we are proud to be part of it.”
Ends
Issued by:
Virgil James
City of Johannesburg
Communications Specialist
Tel: 011 407 7226
Mobile: 082 467 9415
Email: VirgilJ@joburg.org.za
