NBFI assets increase by 1.76%

MBABANE - As of September 30, 2023, the NBFI sector assets increased by 1.76 per cent from E98.94 billion as of June 30, 2023 to E100.69 billion.

According to the Financial Service Regulatory Authority (FSRA) quarterly statistical bulletin for the third quarter (Q3) of 2023, this increase was driven by the growth in the assets managed by collective investment schemes, the reinsurers assets and the retail outlets as these sub-sectors realised growth of 7.63 per cent, 11.04 per cent and 8.67 per cent respectively.

Growth in the other sub-sectors ranged from 0.25 to 3.63 per cent while the Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies (SACCOs) realised a slight decline of 0.66 per cent together with the long-term insurers realising a decline of 0.34 per cent.

Assets

The sector’s annual review shows an increase of 8.91 per cent in terms of assets and the growth leaders were the retirement funds at 11.69 per cent, Collective investment schemes at 10.57 per cent and reinsurers at 11.35 per cent.

However, similar to the decline observed in the quarterly performance, the long-term insurers realised a decline of 9.21 per cent.

Another notable change relates to the continued increase in the local asset portfolios held by different sub-sectors.

Retirement funds continue to exceed the 30 per cent local asset holding as 48.36 per cent of their assets were held in local assets, while the short-term insurers’ local asset holding was at 53.09 per cent and the long-term insurers’ local portfolio was at 34.66 per cent.

Collective investment schemes also exceeded the 50 per cent local asset holding requirement as 64.82 per cent of the assets under their management were held in domestic assets.

The new listings on the Eswatini Stock Exchange (ESE) have also contributed to the increased domestic asset holding as some of the non-banking institutions acquired some of the shares.

Declined

Although the sector remained profitable, the SACCOs’ profitability declined and in the current quarter they incurred a loss; the SACCOs portfolio at risk also remains a concern at 9.47 per cent. While under the DFIs 31.07 per cent of the loan book was in arrears by over 120 days. Building Societies on the other hand showed a decline of 1.45 percentage points on the non-performing loans during the quarter.

Low

The level of competitiveness remains low in the NBFI sector with the Herfindahl Hirschman competitiveness index across the subsectors showing a high level of concentration.

The concentration levels are also confirmed by the static market share positions, where the smaller entities or the newer entities struggle to gain traction in the market and the larger entities having a joint market share exceeding 80 per cent.