Reserve Bank denies investigation into Capitec’s initiation fees
The South African Reserve Bank has denied requesting an investigation into Capitec’s initiation fees on one of its discontinued loan products. Capitec’s share price dropped as much as 5% early on Tuesday morning after a media report that the Bank had asked the National Credit Regulator (NCR) to investigate the fees charged when customers first take up the loan. The product allowed customers who had qualified in-branch for one loan, to then take out multiple loans by answering three questions at an ATM. It was discontinued in 2016 after stricter affordability assessment rules came into force. The Bank’s deputy governor and registrar of banks Kuben Naidoo told Business Day that in the wake of a report into Capitec by short-sellers Viceroy Research in February, which accused the micro-lender of issuing predatory loans, the Bank had asked the NCR to look into the existence of the multi-loan product, and not its initiation fees. "When I was in Parliament at the end of May, I told the hou...
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