Rufaida Hamilton | Head of Payments
Standard Bank Group

Rufaida Hamilton is the Head of Payments for South Africa at Standard Bank Limited of South Africa (SA). She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Arts at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal in SA, and after finishing Law School in 1998, pursued a Bachelor of Commerce Honours degree. Rufaida has 24 years of extensive experience in financial services and payments, traversing the investment, corporate and retail banking segments. She has worked for 3 of the largest banks in South Africa and served in various payment industry roles within the SA payments eco-system in both Board and Board committee roles.   Passionate about improving the South African bank payment experience, Rufaida has led the South African Instant Payments design and implementation, as Chair of several committees from its design phase to execution of the programme to implement a new instant  payment rail in the country.   Rufaida also recently led the banking industry programme to contribute to the design of the new South African  payments industry body. She has a great passion for capacity building in payments expertise and skills, particularly amongst women in payments, and specifically in emerging markets.   As a Money 20/20, Amsterdam Rise Up Cohort member in 2019, Rufaida is a mentor both in South Africa and on the Women in Payments, Canada Global Mentorship programme, supporting the development of emerging talent in payments. She recently joined the board of Currency Research and is a standing member of the Women in Payments EMEA Advisory Board. As a Harvard Business School alumna, she is an active member of the local HBS alumni club.   She lives in Johannesburg South Africa.