Standard Chartered’s digital-first leap of faith begins paying off; bank bounces back to No.3 position Standard Charted Bank Uganda is a bank of many firsts. It is Uganda’s oldest bank- it was founded on 1st August 1912; 109 years ago. It was also the first Ugandan bank to introduce ATMs, the first VISA Electron debit card and toll-free phone banking amongst many other innovations. It is therefore not surprising that in February 2019, the bank was the first to go bold with its digital-first strategy; closing a number of branches and introducing a raft of online self-service platforms. The changes caused a slight disruption in the bank’s market position, but going by 2020’s results, it appears the decision to digitally leapfrog the industry is paying off big- and it is just the beginning.