Banks on offensive after criticism over lending practices and inequality
Banking representatives will not be going to MPs cap in hand to answer questions on their transformation record, says Banking Association of SA MD Cas Coovadia
SA’s banks are going on the offensive after criticism by politicians of their lending practices and their record on addressing racial inequality. President Jacob Zuma has led attacks on lenders, accusing them of monopolising the financial services industry and asking if they colluded in closing accounts of members of the wealthy Gupta family, who are his friends and in business with one of his sons. MPs are due to question representatives of banks on their racial transformation record in Cape Town on Tuesday. On Monday, Banking Association of SA MD Cas Coovadia said: "We are not going there cap in hand, despite all the noise around the industry. "We have been remiss in not introducing a narrative into the public space that actually begins to talk to real data and not to false data. You have got to ask whether there are certain interests that feel threatened by a well-regulated system." The financial system is becoming a battleground for Zuma’s drive for "radical economic transformat...
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