How African Bank rose from the ashes
The number of depositors has trebled in two years and transactional banking is now on the horizon
African Bank’s risky bet on wooing customers with double-digit investment returns is paying off. But then the bank had little choice: it was put under curatorship due to a mountain of bad debts in 2014, and has been trying to rebuild ever since. This is why it is offering a market-beating 13.3% annual return on money deposited over five years as part of a bid to woo back customers.Figures released last week show that during the year to September, it more than doubled retail deposits, which grew to R1.1bn. In all, it now has more than 15,000 depositors, who each put down an average sum of R72,059.The number of depositors was about 5,000 two years ago — and the average deposit is now 2.5 times higher. This could be a sign that people are finally beginning to trust African Bank again after its 2014 collapse scared customers away, or perhaps that pensioners are desperate for a meaningful interest rate on their deposits.African Bank CEO Basani Maluleke says the profile of the typical dep...
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