Tag: banking

Strong revenue growth enabled headline earnings growth of 20% to R14bn, an increase in ROE to 14% and a CET1 ratio of 14%

Ten children are invited to a birthday party. As they arrive, they are each given three golden tokens. The host explains that they will play various games with great prizes using these tokens. In the first game the prize is a brand-new bicycle, which the host says he will give to whichever child offers him the most tokens. This is the supply of desirable goods.

After over a decade of Bitcoin, which has now moved beyond lore and hype into an increasingly robust star in the firmament of global assets, a new and more important question has arisen. What happens beyond Bitcoin? 

A 'new' economic school of thought has emerged and gained mass popularity over the recent years. Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), seeks to challenge the mainstream consensus across the economic spectrum. What exactly is MMT and could it work to address South Africa’s economic woes?

Standard Bank and Pick n Pay customers’ shopping experience has just become even more convenient, easy, and safe, through the Standard Bank’s EasyScan – a service that enables customers to pay for their shopping using the Standard Bank Mobile Banking app.  

Digitalisation was a transformative trend sweeping across industries even before the global COVID-19 pandemic changed the way we work, shop and interact. Society's ongoing transition to smart and sustainable living leverages information and communication technologies (ICT) to improve the quality of life and unlock greater convenience. And ubiquitous and seamless access to digital services underpins this trend, with the digitalisation of banking a core enabler of the emerging smart economy.

Read our exclusive cover story titled THE SMART ECONOMY | HOW IS CUSTOMER DIGITALISATION DRIVING BANKING CHANGE? by Wouter Kielblock, Chief Operations Officer, Corporate and Institutional Banking, Investec, as well a host of other topical management articles written by professionals, consultants and academics in the December/January 2020/21 edition of BusinessBrief.

The fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic will see the battle of the banks intensify, as both legacy and challenger financial institutions race to use tech innovation to gain a competitive advantage in 2020/2021. To some extent, history may be repeating itself, as the financial pressure exerted by the pandemic forces bank management teams to pursue cost discipline while attempting to meet ever expanding customer expectations.

The draft Bill aimed at shoring up struggling banks violates the 'rule of law' by authorising unequal treatment without identifying objective differences to justify it. In addition, in dispensing with equal treatment merely because someone at the SA Reserve Bank, without objective criteria, determines that such action is necessary.

South Africa’s banking sector is increasingly moving towards a ‘marketplace without boundaries’, shaped by the fast-approaching entry of new digital players challenging the status quo in the market, and driving unprecedented levels of innovation.