Lesetja Kganyago wants SA to have more banks
More entrants into the banking system will mean lower costs to consumers, but the newcomers will have to play by the rules, says the Reserve Bank governor
The SA Reserve Bank, having handed out the first three bank licences in 11 years, is keen to see more entrants into the industry to drive down costs for consumers. “The preference is for more entrants because that brings down the cost of banking,” Lesetja Kganyago, the central bank governor, told editors at a lunch in Johannesburg on Thursday. “We have got a concentrated industry.” There will be no preferential treatment for the challengers, he said. They will need to comply with banking rules and will be policed as carefully as their more established competitors, even though they use new technology, Kganyago said. “The debate elsewhere in the world is whether these technology companies should be allowed to operate in the banking space,” he said. “Our attitude is ‘yes they should be, but then they have to play by the rules.’ You can’t want to conduct the business of a bank without playing by the rules.” The new entrants might also find themselves the target of takeover bids if they ...
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