Sylma has more than 25 years banking experience in Structured Solutions. 

At Standard Bank, while based in Johannesburg and London she moved between the investment banking (lending) and global markets (trading) divisions with credit products and derivatives as focus areas.  During the 2008 financial crisis, she was instrumental in the full recovery of Standard Bank’s hybrid finance portfolio.

She started her career at Arthur Anderson in Cape Town before joining Mettle, then a start-up structured finance boutique. 

Sylma studied B.Com LLB at the University of Stellenbosch and qualified as a lawyer and notary with additional qualifications in tax, regulation, securities and derivatives.  Her sectors of expertise include insurance, technology and commodity finance.

Andre spent 12 years at Standard Bank in Johannesburg and London to build and head up Structured Solutions (which included the structured credit, structured equity capital markets, leverage and asset financing teams) into a significant annual revenue business.

He later headed up the global structuring teams covering Africa and International.  Andre uniquely held executive positions on both the investment banking and markets management committees.

His lateral thinking and anticipation of industry developments lead to the development of a number of initiatives such as Structured Commodity Solutions, combining skills across a variety of investment banking and trading specialisations. The structuring and recovery capabilities of the Structured Solutions teams were successfully applied during the 2008 financial crisis, enabling full recovery of the entire portfolio of assets across a range of emerging markets.

Andre studied law and accounting and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales, qualifying as a chartered accountant in 1997 with PricewaterhouseCoopers in London.