South Africa

After the 2008 global financial crisis, the G20 group of countries – of which South Africa is a member – saw the need to reinforce a stable financial system and asked the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision to create a new banking regulation framework.

With both performance and assets outstripping the continent’s other large emerging markets in Egypt, Nigeria and Morocco, South Africa’s banking sector is the biggest and most developed on the continent. The country’s largest banks have branch networks across the region and – unusually for many African institutions – they also have the ability to finance capital-heavy projects...

Following the success in Kenya of Safaricom’s M-Pesa programme, a mobile money scheme that now handles roughly 10% of Kenya’s GDP on an annual basis, mobile financial services have become increasingly popular in Africa. Though the results have been mixed, the fundamentals of the mobile phone as a financial tool are sound. In South Africa, mobile penetration is in excess of 100...

Bank penetration increased from 67% in 2012 to 75% in 2013, with an additional 3.5m people having access to formal banking services. The rollout of the South African Social Security Agency – adding 1.9m people – spurred much of this growth. Of the 16m South Africans who receive social grants, 93% are now registered on the new social security system, which requires a bank...