S&P raises Capitec, African Bank's national rating

Standard and Poor’s has raised African Bank and Capitec's national scale credit rating after revising its mapping table for South Africa and financial institutions, the global ratings agency said on Tuesday.

S&P raised African Bank's rating from zaBBB to zaA-, and Capitec's from zaAA- to zaAA.

The ratings agency kept African Bank’s short term national scale rating at zaA-2.“The ‘B+/B’ global scale rating and outlook of 'stable' previously assigned to the bank remains unchanged,” S&P said in a statement.

For Capitec all other ratings remained unchanged. "The global scale long-term rating remains ‘BB’ with a stable outlook. The global scale short-term rating remains ‘B’ whilst the national scale ratings remains ‘zaA-1+’."

The Reserve Bank in 2014 placed the bad African Bank under curatorship and now owns a 50% stake in African Bank as a result of its rescue and recapitalisation.

The bank was created when the South African Reserve Bank split the “good” customer loans of the old African Bank from the “bad bank” of the failed lender.

In May,  the lender posted a 42% jump in operating profit to R715m, its largest interim profit since its near collapse four years ago.

The bulk of African Bank revenue is generated from loans, and the institution plans to roll out a transnational banking product to the public later this year.

The product is already available to staff members.

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