Mercantile Bank eyes professionals
Mercantile Bank CEO, Karl Kumbier, says the bank is targeting medical professionals this year before rolling out offerings to other professionals, such as accountants and lawyers.
Mercantile Bank CEO Karl Kumbier says the bank is targeting medical professionals in 2017 before rolling out offerings to other professionals, such as accountants and lawyers.
It had launched a radio advertising campaign, would erect a billboard in the Cape Town airport and advertise via social media, he said.
“Other banks don’t see medical professionals in private practice as entrepreneurs,” Kumbier said on Tuesday.
Mercantile Bank, which banked entrepreneurs only, hoped to become the go-to bank for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), he said.
Just as Capitec and Investec were considered the number one consumer and private banks respectively, Kumbier said he hoped that, in future, “if anyone thinks SME, they think Mercantile”.
Mercantile Bank, which delisted six years ago, is 100% owned by Portugal’s Caixa Geral de Depósitos.
It was one of only five banks with access to all payment streams in SA, Kumbier said.
Mercantlie could “lend where the big four can’t”, because of the close relationships it had with clients, which were not restricted by a “salary-slip mindset”, he said.
For example, many business owners struggled to secure home loans from traditional banks because the salaries they drew were not adequate. “We take a view of the salary and the business,” Kumbier said.
For the year to December 2016, Mercantile grew gross loans 20% to R8.7bn, amounting to R2bn in new loans granted to SMEs.
Deposits grew 26% to R8.5bn and the bank’s net profit after tax increased 21% to R171m.
Arguably, Mercantile’s biggest rival is Sasfin, which also targets SMEs and has a large rental finance business. At June 2016, Sasfin had an R11bn balance sheet and reported annual profit of R238.7m.
Mercantile had grown its balance sheet 20% to R12.2bn at December 2016.
The bank aimed to open 1,000 new business accounts this year, a quarter of which it hoped would be medical professionals, Kumbier said.