South Africa’s Standard Bank has bolstered its Africa relationship management team with the appointment of private bankers Alan Blackwell and Will Groat to lead its operations in East and West Africa respectively.

Blackwell joins the firm from the UK-based private bank Coutts and will be located in Jersey in his new role. Groat, meanwhile, joins from Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander and will be based in London.

“They [Blackwell and Groat] join at a time when we are experiencing strong growth in the region, with revenue figures up 30 per cent year-on-year, and we fully expect to be making more key hires in the near future,” said Adam Hunt, head of high net worth clients at Standard Bank.

Standard Bank’s International Private Clients division offers investment management, fiduciary and banking services to clients based in Africa from its offices in London, Jersey, the Isle of Man and Mauritius.