Nothing exclusive about Standard Bank Private Banking

Started banking with Standard Bank in 2006, doing my first year, but I now think that the bank is failing to adapt, nor does it understand what it means to be a private client.

On the 3rd of December 2025, I sent the email below and, to this day, haven't received a call or an email following up on my query. Below is the content of my email.

"Dear Standard Bank Private Banking Team, I am writing to express my deep dissatisfaction with the service from your Private Banking division. After being required to authenticate myself three separate times during one engagement, the consultant assured me that the matter would be escalated and that I would receive feedback the following day. Unfortunately, to date, I have not received any follow-up call, nor have the funds I urgently needed been processed. This delay has caused significant inconvenience. What troubles me even more is the expectation that I must read out my personal information aloud in a public space, only for me to thereafter authenticate the exact same information via the Standard Bank application. I fail to understand the logic or necessity of this duplication. It is counterintuitive and, frankly, irresponsible from a privacy and security standpoint. As a private client, I had assumed that your processes would reduce red tape, not multiply it. My current experience suggests the opposite. Instead of receiving a seamless, relationship-driven service, I feel as though I have been turned into a messenger who must repeatedly relay information between various bank divisions. I had expected that I would request a service, my private banker would liaise internally on my behalf, and once the matter was finalised, I would simply authorise the transaction. That is the very essence of what "private banking" should offer. Yet it appears I am doing the very administrative work I sought to avoid by subscribing to this service. This raises an important question: What is the point of being a private banking client if there is nothing exclusive about the experience? Moreover, what is the point of authenticating myself securely on the app if I must first shout out my personal details—such as my full name and ID number—thus exposing information that places my account at even greater risk? To illustrate the frustration: I was called and asked, "Are you B******x M******?" only to be asked moments later to say my full names again, followed by a series of repetitive and unnecessary questions including my ID number. This is inefficient, intrusive, and not befitting of a private banking environment. For clarification purposes, why must clients disclose personal information publicly when authentication can be securely completed through the app? I look forward to a prompt and satisfactory response, as well as immediate resolution of the outstanding matter."