SA Reserve Bank releases report on country’s biggest banks

The report states details on the registered banks in South Africa to 31 December 2017. Sarb’s report revealed that the total banking sector assets increased from R4,88 trillion in December 2016 to R5,16 trillion at the end of last year.

There was also an increase in gross loans and advance by 2,54% in 2017 which is a drop in comparison to the 2,98% form 2016.

Two new commercial banking licences were issued to TymeDigital (Commonwealth Bank of South Africa Limited) and Discovery Bank. The Sarb are also listing their asset values with the asset values of other registered banks in South Africa.

Both banks have not formally begun trading in the country, which is why they have low asset values and their ranking alongside South Africa’s biggest banks shows the threat they face in the country’s banking market.

Bank	Assets (R million)	Growth
1.Standard Bank	1 254 849	+1,64%
2. FirstRandBank	1 120 747	+10,23%
3. Absa	983 378	+7,51%
4. Nedbank	892 006	+2,60%
5. Investec	415 285	+7,29%
6. Capitec	87 033	+21,34%
7. African Bank	31 356	-14%
8. Grindrod Bank	16 696	+9,91%
9. Mercantile Bank	12 892	+8,9%
10. Bidvest Bank	8 508	+21,39%
11. Sasfin	7 778	14,97%
12,. Albaraka Bank	5 930	+10,10%
13. Ubank	5 224	12,90%
14. HBZ Bank	4856	+14,97%
15. South African Bank of Athens	2 355	+3,95%
16. Tyme Digital (Commonwealth Bank of South Africa)	1 403	+100%
17. Habib Overseas Bank	1 186	+4,461%
18. Discovery Bank	622	+100%

Mutual banks were also included in the report. The report showed that VBS was number one on the list at the end of the assessment period, however, there have been reports that the bank has been mismanaged. The bad mismanagement of the bank resulted in it being put under curatorship earlier this year.

Bank Zero, a new mutual bank will enter the South African banking market later this year. As the bank has not been launched as yet the assets are included the table below.

Bank	Assets (R milion)	Growth
1. VBS Bank	2 401	+55,6%
2. Finbond Mutual Bank	1 603	%
GBS Mutual Bank	1 376	%

15 international banks that have local branches in the country were also included in the report. Four of the international banks are ranked with South Africa’s 10 biggest banks in the country overall.

Bank of Baroda announced that they would be exiting the country. They have been reported to be working with the Gupta’s and the Hawks raided their offices recently as a part of an investigation into state capture.

Bank	Assets (R million)	Growth
1. Citibank NA	58 756	-9,53%
2. HSBC	47 717	+5,79%
3. Bank of China	44 341	+35,74%
4. China Construction Bank	36 098	-3,91%
5. JPMorgan Chase	33 939	+18,99
6. Standard Chartered Bank	33 493	+3,75%
7. BNP Paribas	13 748	+22,70%
8. Deutsche Bank	10 450	+0,60%
9. Société Générale	8 935	+13.48%
10. State Bank of India	8c602	+15,64%
11. Bank of Baroda	2 779	-29,47%
12. Bank of Taiwan	2 365	+17,78%
13. ICIC Bank	584	+116,79%
14. Canara Bank	488	+48,65%
15. Bank of India	472	+10,53%

The Sarb recently released a report which evaluated the emergence of technological innovations in the financial sector. The report also revealed that daily number of the SA payments system could be handled in less than two hours with full confidentiality.

The report comes after the Sarb announced earlier this year that they had created a Fintech programme to evaluate the rise of financial technological innovations and look at their regulatory implications.