SA BANKS UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT IN LATEST INDEX

CLAIMS of banks overcharging customers, allegations involving bank officials, retrenchments, continued account fraud via unauthorised debits, banks’ pricing, as well as product offering are among a litany of issues that had consumers more negative about their banks in the current year than in 2018, leading to a 4.2-points decline reading in the Brandseye, South Africa’s Banking Sentiment Index for 2019. According to the index, the irksome feeling people have about their banks is primarily compounded by the adverse economic climate, which has increased price sensitivity and political rhetoric among consumers. It observed that Capitec and Nedbank performed better than the average industry score in 2019 across all broader topics. Nedbank had the highest Net Sentiment score for ethics and reputation; this was driven by the Global Citizen campaign and other CSI initiatives. Capitec had the highest Net Sentiment for all other major topics and as expected, its trademark low banking charges – in particular, its announcement that it would cut fees in February – ensured that its sentiment was 83.2 points above the industry score. Another significant deviation pertained to Capitec’s performance on banking products. “Although still net negative, it was the best performing in the industry and was driven by several factors, including the introduction of cash sends, as well as increased anticipation for the launch of business banking. Absa, FNB and Standard Bank all fell below the industry average score for all broad topics. Absa had the lowest Net Sentiment out of the industry for ethics or reputation, scoring more than 35 percentage points below the industry average,” the report reads. Several allegations and news events damaged consumer sentiment towards Absa over the year. The index scoured 1 900 350 social media mentions about South Africa’s five major banks for the period September 1, 2018, to August 31, 2019. The banks analysed were Absa, Capitec, FNB, Nedbank and Standard Bank.