An analysis of the results reported by South Africa’s big banks, which was conducted by professional services firm PwC, shows that the sector shrugged off the Covid-19 headwinds and remained highly profitable.
The auditing and consulting firm zoomed in on the 2021 results of the country’s big four banks: Absa, FirstRand, Nedbank, and Standard Bank.
The banks raked in a combined R86.8-billion in profits.
Costa Natsas, PwC Africa Financial Services leader, said while 2021 remained a difficult year, a sizeable number of stakeholders expect that the worst of the pandemic is now in the rear-view mirror.
“Against relatively supportive conditions and deliberate management of risk appetite, the major banks’ results for the period exhibit the strength and stability of the South African banking industry,” he said.
PwC also said one of the reasons for a bullish banking sector is the continued focus on, and investments into, further building out digital banking capabilities, which resulted in positive client satisfaction scores.
Market research firm Consulta on Wednesday released its study, which found that the customer satisfaction gap between South Africa’s banks was closing rapidly, with the digital acceleration brought about by the pandemic being a significant equaliser.
The study looked into 12 000 customers from the lower, middle, and upper retail banking segments on their overall satisfaction with five of South Africa’s participating retail banks during 2021 – Absa, African Bank, FNB, Nedbank, and Standard Bank.
Abigail Boikhutso, CEO of Consulta, said banks were under pressure to reinvent their customer value propositions.
“Banks now need to maintain a complex hybrid structure of online and offline service platforms for diverse customer preferences.
“They are under pressure to ensure that every banking functionality is value-adding, seamless, simple, and provides real-time assistance and first-time resolution for every customer inquiry, no matter the service channel,” she said.
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