BANK KNIGHT BOWS OUT

Outgoing Firstrand chairman Laurie Dippenaar talks about the items he wants to tick off his bucket list once he’s retired, scoffs at the supposed value of bitcoin and warns of careless investing overseas

Investing in bitcoin is “just gambling”, says Laurie Dippenaar, the elder statesman of SA banking. Dippenaar knows about money — he is the co-founder of Africa’s largest bank by market value, Firstrand (value: R320bn), along with GT Ferreira and Paul Harris.

But even he admits his knowledge on the cryptocurrency is lacking. Speaking to the Financial Mail, Dippenaar recalls a “very liquid lunch” attended by, among others, Ferreira, Harris and PSG’S Jannie Mouton.

“We pooled our collective knowledge of bitcoin and there were lots of areas of vagueness,” he says. “The only firm anchor in the ground was the meteoric rise in the price. Anyone who buys bitcoin is buying it for that reason only.”

He’s not the only banker who feels that way. Jpmorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has described it as a fraud, saying he’d fire any employee who traded it for being “stupid”.

Bitcoin’s gravity-defying value uplift — 1,430% over the past year — has many feeling it’s a bubble just itching to burst, notwithstanding the potential of digital currencies.

Believers describe it as a useful store of value, akin to digital gold. And institutional asset managers are finding it increasingly difficult to ignore.

Uk-based Old Mutual Global Investors revealed last month that its gold and silver fund had made a small allocation to bitcoin