Bad loans increase at SA small lenders

Bad loans at small South African banks rose to 17.1 percent of those lenders' books in the first half of this year, the central bank said on Wednesday, just months after the collapse of unsecured lender African Bank.

Published on:

29 Oct 2014, 10:09 am

PRETORIA (Reuters) – Bad loans at small South African banks rose to 17.1 percent of those lenders' books in the first half of this year, the central bank said on Wednesday, just months after the collapse of unsecured lender African Bank.

However, impaired advances at the five largest banks – Standard Bank, FirstRand, Barclays Africa, Nedbank and Investec – contracted by 2.1 percent to 81.8 billion rand($7.53 billion), South Africa's Reserve Bank said in its latest financial stability report.

(1 US dollar = 10.8561 South African rand)

South Africa