WATCH: Banking on dividends in troubling times

We’re at the halfway mark of the year and that means banking results are around the corner. Locally and globally, rates continue to rise and inflation remains sticky. Stage 6 load-shedding and record-high fuel prices have done nothing to help brighten the mood after a surprisingly good first quarter GDP print.

Stress levels in the Chinese banking sector are extremely concerning. Chinese authorities on Sunday violently dispersed a peaceful protest by hundreds of depositors, who sought in vain to demand their life savings back from banks that have run into a deepening cash crisis.

Since April, four rural banks in China’s central Henan province have frozen millions of dollars’ worth of deposits, threatening the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of customers in an economy already battered by draconian Covid-19 lockdowns.

China’s banking sector in terms of bank assets to GDP, is the biggest in the world and has been a concern for analysts for years due to its shadowy nature.

BDTV’s Michael Avery spoke to Nolwandle Mthombeni, senior banks analyst at Intellidex; and David Buckham, MD of Monocle Solutions.

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