OVERVIEW
Banking and financial services Investors are getting behind fintech.
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aspers Foundry is one of several investment funds looking for opportunities in the financial sector. Insurance technology is of particular interest, together with credit services and payment systems. The appointment by mobile operator Vodacom of a new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) in 2020 gave further insight into the growing link between the digital world and the world of finance. The new executive, Raisibe Morathi, was for 10 years CFO of Nedbank. Morathi also served on the board of Sanlam, a giant in the South African financial sector. In 2019, Sanlam, which has 20 319 South African employees, distributed R190-billion between employees, shareholders, government and clients. Capital Appreciation, which is part-owned by the Public Investment Corporation, is already invested in a software developer, a credit card payment terminal provider and has R500-million available for further investments. African Rainbow Capital, with about 5%, has a stake in the investment company and is the owner of TymeBank, which received a banking licence in 2017. Tyme stands for Take Your Money Everywhere and refers to the bank not having a branch network. Perhaps the lockdown encouraged customers to think in digital terms because Tyme reported in October 2020 that it had 2.4-million customers, up from 1.4-million at the end of March. A 400% increase in the use of services such as airtime and electricity purchases was also noted. Discovery Bank officially launched in March 2019 and is experiencing rapid growth with deposits of R3.7-billion. Discovery Bank is applying the behavioural model it uses in its health business to reward good financial behaviour. Another relatively new bank is Capitec, which is steadily increasing its customer base by providing banking for business and individual customers in what it describes as a simple manner. In
ONLINE RESOURCES Financial Sector Conduct Authority: www.fsca.co.za Insurance Institute of South Africa: www.iisa.co.za South African Institute for Chartered Accountants: www.saica.co.za
SOUTH AFRICAN BUSINESS 2021
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SECTOR INSIGHT PSG is selling a big stake in Capitec Bank. May 2020, investment holding company PSG announced that it would reduce its holding in Capitec Bank from 32% to 4%, earning about R4-billion by selling those shares. South Africa’s financial services sector has expanded by the opening of several new stock exchanges. Ph a r m a c e u t i c a l c o m p a ny Aspen Pharmacare has taken a second listing on A2X. Of the four new exchanges, Equit y Express Secur ities Exchange (EESE) trades in Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) while ZARX and 4AX are targeting companies that are not listed elsewhere. ZARX has agricultural holding companies lik e T WK and Senwes among its clients. The JSE is the world’s 19th biggest exchange and nearly 400 companies are listed on the JSE or AltX, the JSEowned exchange for smaller companies. ■
