{"id":868589,"date":"2026-08-04T08:54:35","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T06:54:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=868589"},"modified":"2026-08-04T08:54:38","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T06:54:38","slug":"nedbank-ceo-has-good-news-for-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/banking\/868589\/nedbank-ceo-has-good-news-for-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Nedbank CEO has good news for South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Nedbank Group CEO Jason Quinn believes that South Africa’s economy continues to show encouraging signs despite the recent volatility. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking in the group’s financial results for the first half of 2025, Quinn said that the US-Iran war and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz weighed on the global economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This led to inflationary pressures in South Africa and other markets, as well as a more hawkish monetary policy stance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The operating environment in South Africa was mixed, with real GDP growth in Q1 surprising on the upside, while higher fuel prices drove local consumer inflation up to 5% in June. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Reserve Bank also hiked interest rates by 25 basis points in May, taking the prime lending rate to 10.5%.

Quinn noted that credit growth strengthened modestly, with corporate credit growth accelerating off a low base. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Household credit growth improved slightly but was still constrained by affordability pressures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, the CEO said that the nation’s economic outlook remains encouraging, amid a more “credible fiscal trajectory, progress on structural reforms, and recent credit rating upgrades.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Many of the country’s positive prospects as an attractive investment destination remain intact
despite global uncertainties and the conflict in the Middle East,” he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Nedbank’s headline earnings for H1 2026 were flat year-on-year at R8.4 billion, this was an outperformance from their expectations at the start of the year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Headline earnings benefited from improving net interest income growth, strong non-interest revenue growth and very disciplined expense management, Quinn noted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, they were offset by a higher impairment charge and by the non-recognition of associate income from Ecobank Transnational Incorporated following its sale in 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Excluding the ETI base, headline earnings growth stood at 12%, which Quinn linked to strong underlying operational performance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group’s Return on equity (ROE) of 15.0% (H1 2025: 15.2%) was slightly above its cost of equity of 14.0%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group also declared an interim dividend of 1,052 cents per share, amid a strong balance sheet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group also began restructuring in 2025 to become more client-centred, unlock growth and cross-selling opportunities, diversifying earnings, and improving productivity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Benefits have become more evident across our business clusters in the first half of 2026,” said Quinn. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group has already begun to see early synergies following its iKhokha and Eqstra acquisitions, while it is also making progress with its acquisition of a majority stake in NCBA in Kenya.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Financial Metric<\/strong><\/td>Current Period<\/strong><\/td>Prior Period (June 2025)<\/strong><\/td>Growth \/ Change<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/thead>
Headline Earnings<\/strong><\/td>R8 405m<\/td>R8 399m<\/td>+0.1%<\/td><\/tr>
Revenue<\/strong><\/td>R38 235m<\/td>R35 981m<\/td>+6.0%<\/td><\/tr>
Total Operating Expenses<\/strong><\/td>R21 696m<\/td>R21 067m<\/td>+3.0%<\/td><\/tr>
Cost-to-Income Ratio<\/strong><\/td>56.2%<\/td>56.9%<\/td>-0.7% pts<\/td><\/tr>
Credit Loss Ratio<\/strong><\/td>95 bps<\/td>81 bps<\/td>+14 bps<\/td><\/tr>
Headline Earnings Per Share (HEPS)<\/strong><\/td>1 841 cents<\/td>1 800 cents<\/td>+2.0%<\/td><\/tr>
Diluted Headline Earnings Per Share<\/strong><\/td>1 803 cents<\/td>1 762 cents<\/td>+2.0%<\/td><\/tr>
Basic Earnings Per Share (EPS)<\/strong><\/td>1 830 cents<\/td>1 571 cents<\/td>+16.0%<\/td><\/tr>
Interim Dividend Per Share<\/strong><\/td>1 052 cents<\/td>1 028 cents<\/td>+2.3%<\/td><\/tr>
Net Asset Value (NAV) Per Share<\/strong><\/td>25 486 cents<\/td>24 522 cents<\/td>+4.0%<\/td><\/tr>
Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) Ratio<\/strong><\/td>12.6%<\/td>13.1%<\/td>-0.5% pts<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Outlook <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Quinn said that South Africa’s GDP growth is expected to improve slightly to about 1.3% in 2026 and 1.4% in 2027, supported by resilient consumer spending. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, growth is set to be constrained by weak business confidence, subdued fixed investment and global energy price risks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As inflation is expected to remain above the 3% target, averaging 4.0% in 2026, the SARB is expected to increase the lending rate by a further 25 bps in September 2026. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the CEO said that rates are expected to decline gradually in 2027. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Banking conditions should improve gradually, with credit growth projected to remain positive
and end the year at around 7%, although risks remain tilted to the downside,” said Quinn. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We expect the underlying growth momentum across all our businesses to continue in H2 2026,
supporting an improvement in HE growth from the flat outcome reported in the first half.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

ROE is expected to exceed 15% in 2026, approaching 2025 levels. In the medium term, ROE is expected to reach around 17% in 2028, underpinned by revenue growth and efficiency gains. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Nedbank CEO Jason Quinn<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
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Nedbank CEO Jason Quinn says that South Africa’s economy is showing signs of improvement despite the war in Iran complicating the picture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":856806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2084533557536411721","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2166242447529488","_sma_instagram_post_id":"17900607303505150","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[961],"tags":[1799],"class_list":["post-868589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking","tag-nedbank"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868589","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\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=868589"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":868598,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868589\/revisions\/868598"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/856806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=868589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=868589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=868589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}