KZN intent on ensuring Ithala attains commercial bank status by end-2017
Once this has happened, the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government will move its accounts to Ithala and use it to advance the aims of radical economic transformation
The KwaZulu-Natal provincial government is pulling out all stops to ensure that Ithala SOC Limited bank becomes a fully fledged commercial bank before the end of 2017.On Friday the province’s MEC for economic development, tourism and environmental affairs, Sihle Zikalala, told the KwaZulu-Natal legislature that the department was working with the Reserve Bank and the Treasury towards the realisation of this goal.Once this happened the provincial government would move its accounts to Ithala and use it to advance the aims of radical economic transformation.Earlier in the week, Telecommunications and Postal Services Minister Siyabonga Cwele said the government was close to spinning Postbank out of the post office and using it to lend to the country’s poor and distribute welfare grants, in a bid to loosen the grip of private-sector banks.In the same week, competition commissioner Thembinkosi Bonakele called for the easing of regulation to allow for second-tier banks so that new entrants...
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