{"id":826555,"date":"2025-06-08T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-08T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=826555"},"modified":"2025-06-07T14:32:34","modified_gmt":"2025-06-07T12:32:34","slug":"major-banks-closing-down-and-shrinking-branches-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/banking\/826555\/major-banks-closing-down-and-shrinking-branches-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Major banks closing down and shrinking branches in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africa’s retail banking sector is continuing the trend of downsizing and scaling back their physical presence in the country as clients turn to digital options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An assessment of all banking branches at full-year 2024 shows that the country has seen the net closure of nine branches among the top five ‘legacy’ banks, with Standard Bank narrowing its footprint the most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even in cases where branch closures are not as prominent, the banks have also moved to shrink their points of presence, reducing the square meterage of operations where possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BusinessTech examined the full-year financial reports for Standard Bank, Absa, Nedbank, and Capitec for the latest available year. Data from FirstRand’s interim results were used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The data reflects branch numbers as of the end of December 2024 for all banks except Capitec, where the numbers reflect data as of February 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the assessment, the number of branches across the banks dropped from 3,299 branches in December 2023 to 3,290 branches in December 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the loss of 9 branches overall may seem negligible, only two banks actually added branches – FirstRand added 9 and Capitec added 14.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These additions were countered by reductions at Nedbank, Absa and Standard Bank – the latter most cutting its network by 26 points of presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Standard Bank, the group has made a concerted effort to cut down its branch numbers as part of an ongoing effort to migrate clients to digital platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group said that it has been deliberate in managing its physical presence, reducing its total branch footprint by 42% since 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While this has reduced the group’s physical branch network for customer interaction, it has delivered cost savings of R768 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, it has opted to increase its points of presence (PoPs) through lower-cost kiosks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the devil is in the details with the group’s reporting. While it recorded 652 ‘branches’ in 2023, these are actually “points of representation” comprising 485 physical branches and 167 kiosks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At FY 2024, the group actually added one branch (to 486), but cut 27 kiosks, resulting in a net loss of 26 PoPs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We continue to optimise our infrastructure by reducing branch square meterage and ATM numbers, while increasing our points of access,” the group said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We know that many of our clients still need to access and process cash, and we understand that there is no substitute for in-person meetings when dealing with complex issues.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Branches are also shrinking<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Following the broader trend in the country, Nedbank has also been reducing its physical presence, dropping its branch total by 4 in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the group has also been reducing its branch floor space, cutting it to 118,000 square metres in 2024, having cut a cumulative 72,000 square metres from 2020 levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As with Standard Bank, the group has noted a direct relation between branch space and number and the advent of digital channels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Going forward, we expect these trends to continue as manual in-branch and ATM transactions decline as more clients make use of digital channels,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Running counter to the trend, Capitec has been expanding its branch network in line with its strategy to service its customer base in strategic locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group noted that, on top of being able to deliver personalised customer service to clients, the large branch network also allows it to capture new business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Transacting is performed at the branch self-service terminals, whilst consultants enable us to successfully sell new products into the market and grow client adoption,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is key as the group expands its services into new sectors like the insurance business, which may be underrepresented among its typical clientele.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We see growth potential in the informal economy (emerging market) in South Africa. There is a need for credit, insurance, VAS, payment channels, education and support that has not previously been addressed,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We will work towards meeting this need. We have a large branch network in the right strategic locations, and we will leverage this.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa bank branch numbers 2024\/25<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bank<\/strong><\/td>Branches<\/strong> FY23<\/strong><\/td>Branches FY24<\/strong><\/td>Change<\/td><\/tr>
Capitec<\/td>866<\/strong>*<\/td>880**<\/td>+14<\/mark><\/td><\/tr>
Standard Bank (SA)***<\/td>652<\/td>626<\/td>-26<\/mark><\/td><\/tr>
FirstRand (FNB)****<\/td>616<\/td>625<\/td>+9<\/mark><\/td><\/tr>
Absa<\/td>618<\/td>616<\/td>-2<\/mark><\/td><\/tr>
Nedbank<\/td>547<\/td>543<\/td>-4<\/mark><\/td><\/tr>
Total<\/strong><\/td>3,299<\/strong><\/td>3,290<\/strong><\/td>-9<\/mark><\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div>
*FY24 and **FY25 ***Including ‘low-cost kiosks’ ****HY24<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three of South Africa’s five major banks have cut branches down to size over the past year – but there’s a very good reason that some are keeping them alive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":812493,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[961],"tags":[29,22735,1798,4088,76,1799,499],"class_list":["post-826555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking","tag-absa","tag-branches","tag-capitec","tag-firstrand","tag-fnb","tag-nedbank","tag-standard-bank"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=826555"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":827295,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826555\/revisions\/827295"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/812493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=826555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=826555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=826555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}