R300m will be spent on infrastructure
April 5, 2005
By Sherilee Bridge-David
Absa, the country`s biggest retail bank, will spend R300 million on banking infrastructure in the next year.
The bank plans to roll out 400 new ATMs and 33 branches to mostly underserviced areas.
Louis von Zeuner, the group executive director, said last week that getting services to the unbanked market was a huge challenge for the banks.
Addressing concerns raised in the Falkena report on competition in the banking industry, the biggest four banks last week signed a delivery agreement with the department of housing, committing at least R42 billion worth of targeted investment for new affordable housing finance by the end of 2008.
This would give lower-income groups, or those with an income of between R1 500 and R7 500, a chance to own their own homes.
`We are serious about banking the unbanked,` said Errol Kruger, a spokesperson for Absa.
The bank has also moved into the microloan market, where it is trying to break through the barriers facing lower-income groups` access to finance, and is rolling out fully fledged portable banks in places such as Soweto.
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