Nedbank to go after MSMEs

Nedbank plans to expand its retail offerings by going after small and medium businesses and setting up a private bank for high-net-worth individuals (who are often the owners of small and medium businesses). The MSME sector is increasingly the focus of banks, with Capitec and FirstRand already running units devoted to small business. "The growth in the economy that we do see is coming from that segment and we've got a really nice franchise there," Nedbank Chief Executive Officer Jason Quinn said in an interview on Bloomberg Television with Jennifer Zabasajja. "We see huge opportunity, in fact, in our markets around business and commercial banking." As Bloomberg notes, MSMEs have an estimated revenue of about 5 trillion rand ($269 billion), and account for four out of five of the nation's workforce. The bank said its 2024 profits rose to a record on the back of higher fees and lower credit losses. "The so-called headline earnings climbed 8% to 16.9 billion rand ($907 million), the Johannesburg-based lender said." Quinn said that the new US tariffs "may not be good" for South Africa.