Big banks threatened by fintech, smaller nimble banks – Kokkie Kooyman

It is a fact of modern life all over the world that the days when you actually go in to a bank for transactions are officially over, apart from those big moments for a mortgage or a big loan which requires a branch manager and even that is a maybe. For most transactions you do not need a physical building and in many countries around the world, you don't even use cash; you can pay by swiping a card, your phone or even the watch on your wrist. It may not be long before the car guard offers you a swipe machine as many cities in the world now have techie beggars sporting their own card machines. You are also increasingly more likely to be addressed by a chatbot than someone standing on the other side of the counter. It means that banks need less staff and if they don't keep up with digitisation, they risk losing customers to new entrants into the market, who have embraced all the tech. Kokkie Kooyman from Denker Capital told Biznews in an interview on Rational Radio that the decision by Nedbank to retrench 1,500 staff members is due to digitisation and smaller, more nimble players coming into the market. – Linda van Tilburg

Kokkie Kooyman is a regular at the annual shareholders meetings of Berkshire Hathaway in Omaha in the United States where investors gather to learn from billionaire Warren Buffett. He took Biznews' Alec Hogg with him for one of his meetings which led to Alec's book on the Oracle of Omaha.  Kooyman says he will attend until Buffett finally retires.

The reason for the retrenchments at Nedbank, he says is due to two factors: Digitalisation or fintech and the banks are being attacked by smaller, nimble partners even in South Africa… Bank Zero, Tyme Bank and Discovery Bank. The banks are responding by working on their technology and making sure they can compete with the smaller, nimble players.

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