WATCH

OTHING is ever quite as it seems in the world of banking. One minute you have a thriving home loan market and then before you know it everyone is drowning in toxic rubbish called subprime mortgage debt.

One minute everyone wants to be a banker then next minute bankers are describing themselves as journalists to passport officials.

And so, as part of this very fickle environment, Capitec is probably not too surprised about the current spate of bad publicity to which it is being subjected.

As a major player in the “market formerly known as microlending” but now referred to as “unsecured lending”, Capitec should know how things that can seem in balance one day, just tip over the next.

Apart from the controversy that surrounds its fundamental business model, namely whether or not it is helping to feed a borrowing frenzy that will end in tears, Capitec has also come in for criticism about its black economic empowerment (BEE) transaction as well as for the sale of