Restructuring hits Big Four bank in South Africa
Nedbank has completed its organisational restructuring, with the group expecting a muted performance for the year.
In a pre-close update for the 2025 financial year, Nedbank stated that the group’s strategic organisational restructure, announced in March 2025, has been finalised.
The move saw Nedbank split its Retail and Business Banking (RBB) and Nedbank Wealth clusters into several segments, including:
- Personal and Private Banking (PPB)
- Business and Commercial Banking (BCB)
- Corporate Investment Banking (CIB)
The restructuring also involves more varied business segments, with RBB now also including Nedbank Insurance and Nedbank Wealth Management.
The bank previously stated that it was looking to upsell clients and is taking a more ‘client-centric’ approach to remain competitive in the banking space.
In addition to the restructuring, Nedbank announced that the group’s R1.65 billion acquisition of fintech company iKhokha has been effective since 1 December 2025.
The disposal of the group’s financial investment in Togo-based ETI to Bosquet is awaiting final approvals in the relevant jurisdictions.
Nedbank said that the local environment in South Africa remained difficult in the second half of 2025.
Amid modest economic growth and geopolitical uncertainty, the impact of US tariffs led to muted transactional activity and further delays in capital investment by corporations and businesses.
That said, prospects for the year have improved on several fronts, including subdued inflation, which created space for further interest rate cuts.
This will support a more convincing recovery in household credit demand. The overall investment environment has also improved due to progress on structural reforms and enhanced governance.
This led to South Africa’s removal from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list, continued fiscal discipline and the latest credit rating from S&P.
Muted performance
Nedbank also provided its financial performance for the 10 months to 31 October 2025.
The group stated that headline earnings growth was in line with management expectations, driven by higher levels of net interest income and non-interest revenue.
The company also reported a lower impairment charge and a well-managed expense base.
However, the guidance does not account for a R600 million settlement between Transnet and Nedbank, settled on 25 November 2025.
Net interest income growth of low to mid-single digits for 10M 2025 represented a slight improvement from the 2% growth in the first half of the year.
The group’s impairment charge also improved, ahead of management’s expectations.
The company stated that the annualised credit loss ratio improved period over period to below the midpoint of the group’s TTC target range of 60 bps and 100 bps.
CIB and BCB credit loss ratios were below their respective TTC target ranges. PPB’s CLR improved further and was within the top half of its TTC target range.
Nedbank views CLR as being below the midpoint of its TTC target range for FY 2025.
NIR growth was below mid-single digits in the 10 months of 2025 when compared to the prior period, driven by solid trading and insurance growth.
Excluding the once-off commercial settlement with Transnet, the group said that its DHEPS growth is flat to low single digits.
The group said that its ROE for the period will be 15% or higher for FY 2025.
The group also embarked on a share repurchase this year, with R2.4 billion worth of shares repurchased from shareholders.
At an average share price of R229.53 per share, the group bought shares at a discount to the book value per share of R245.22.
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