The governor of the Reserve Bank asks what role a state bank would play in a country where more than 80% of the population has access to financial services - ‘I am not clear what ill the state bank would try to cure’ – Kganyago }
, suggesting that African Bank should be absorbed into such an entity.
Sarb has been seeking a buyer for its 50% stake in that institution, which was placed under curatorship in 2014. It served notice on the bank last year. Kganyago said the state would have to apply for a banking licence “like everyone else”, and if it met the criteria, Sarb would license it. But such a bank would need to have adequate capital and liquidity, and would then need to compete in the financial services space.
“You can ask American and European banks that came into our financial services space: South African banks know how to compete and I would like to see the state play in that space to compete,” he said. “Competition in financial services comes from two interesting forces. The first is from the FinTech space, which are players who are using technology to provide new financial services. But the big competitor for banks, for me, is BigTech.
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