“Can Africa's largest bank build a globally competitive consumer fintech product (Shyft) and a corporate API banking platform (OneHub) on top of its own balance sheet and infrastructure without ceding ground to challenger banks or third-party BaaS providers?”
Standard Bank is Africa's largest bank by assets, operating for over 160 years as a full-service financial institution. The Shyft product, launched around 2018, represents the group's consumer fintech pivot: a mobile-first global money app targeting South African retail customers for forex, international payments, multi-currency cards, and offshore investments — effectively a neobank-adjacent product built on the group's own banking rails and Currencycloud's FX infrastructure. The group simultaneously built OneHub, a B2B API marketplace for corporate banking, signalling an embedded-finance-provider ambition in addition to being a traditional bank.
Standard Bank (Shyft) discloses The Standard Bank of South Africa Limited (in-house) as its banking provider, according to the Embedded Finance Index 2026.
Standard Bank (Shyft) does not disclose a bank charter of its own; its banking services are provided through The Standard Bank of South Africa Limited (in-house).
Standard Bank (Shyft) processes payments through Standard Bank Payments (self-operated) and PayShap Rapid Payments Platform (self-operated).
Standard Bank (Shyft)'s cards are issued through The Standard Bank of South Africa Limited (self_issued).
Standard Bank (Shyft) uses Currencycloud for FX and cross-border payouts.
The Embedded Finance Index 2026 maps 5 layers in Standard Bank (Shyft)'s stack: Payments / PSP (Standard Bank Payments (self-operated) and PayShap Rapid Payments Platform (self-operated)); Banking / BaaS (The Standard Bank of South Africa Limited (in-house)); Card issuing (The Standard Bank of South Africa Limited (self_issued)); Lending (BizFlex short-term business loan (revenue-based repayment), Business Revolving Loan (revolving credit), Business Overdraft and Shari'ah-compliant Merchant Capital Cash Advance (MCA via Merchant Capital partnership)); FX & payouts (Currencycloud).
Standard Bank (Shyft) is founded in 1862 and headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Get a read on where your own stack stands against Standard Bank (Shyft) and the rest of its category — what they built versus bought, which providers they use, and where the gaps in your own strategy and competitive set actually are.