BANKING NEWS: LOCAL
Bungane leaves
Kennedy Bungane: Chief Executive
Regional Management and
Strategy, at Absa
After 23 years in banking, Kennedy Bungane, Chief Executive of Barclays Africa
regional management and head of strategy, has left the group to “pursue other
business interests”.
In a statement issued in early June, Barclays Africa group CEO, Maria Ramos,
thanked Bungane for his contribution to the execution of the bank’s African growth
strategy and wished him continued success.
“At this stage Kennedy is keeping details of his new role confidential and we
respect his wishes. A decision about a replacement for Kennedy will be made in
due course,” a Barclays Africa spokesperson told Moneyweb.
In the interim, the Barclays Africa executive will assume accountability for
Bungane’s portfolio, in addition to their current responsibilities.
“After a fulfilling career, I have decided to change industries and gain new
experiences. I am privileged to have played a part in the creation of Barclays
Africa, which has been the highlight of my banking career,” Bungane said.
With Ramos at the helm, Barclays Africa aims to increase the share of its nonSouth Africa business to 25% and become a top three bank by revenue in its four
biggest markets outside of South Africa by 2016. Ramos said it was on to track to
deliver on these targets.
Turning your phone into a secure payment device
payD allows simple, safe and secure online and mobile shopping using
PIN-based debit, cheque and credit cards. It transforms any shopper’s
cellular phone into a personal PIN entry device to authenticate and
secure purchase transactions, providing security and peace of mind to
both cardholder and merchant.
payD transactions can be initiated using websites on computers and
tablets, mobi-sites and USSD on cellular phones, self-service terminals
and even call centres.
According to the company, payD enables you to expand your
payment acceptance market beyond traditional credit-card holders, by
allowing debit/cheque card-holders to purchase airtime, pay bills, load
wallets, purchase tickets on the go, and generally shop online. Because
payD transactions are “PIN-present transactions”, the risk of losses due
to disputes is essentially removed for merchants.
payD transactions are fully compliant with PASA’s regulations for
Authenticated Mobile Transactions, as well as PCI regulations.
Participating banks include Standard Bank, ABSA, Nedbank, Postbank
and Bidvest Bank. Participating networks are MTN and Vodacom.
Contact us on: 011 490 8368
Standard Bank steps into the breach in Africa
The Standard Bank Group is seeing a continuation of demand for
its services from international commodity traders, and rapidly
expanding regional and local businesses in Africa. This follows
the withdrawal of several global lenders from the continent in the
wake of the global financial crisis.
The pull-back forced on global banks by the global economic
slowdown, the European debt crisis and tougher capital
requirements on international banks is occurring at a time when
Africa’s trade continues to grow across a broad front of geographies
and sectors.
This issue was unpacked at the 6th annual East Africa Trade
and Commodity Conference held in Nairobi, Kenya, in May.
The conference is widely accepted as the most important annual
gathering of influential business leaders and trade finance
practitioners in East Africa.
“The financing gap left by the European banks continues to
manifest itself, but we believe this provides an opportunity for Pan
African banks such as Standard Bank to step into the breach,” said
Gwen Mwaba, Standard Bank Group’s executive vice-president,
Structured Trade Finance, who was speaking on the sidelines of
the conference.
“Standard Bank aims to be the bank of choice in Africa, and given
the number of new clients we’re onboarding, particularly in the oil
and gas sector, we expect the demand for locally grown banking
services to help to propel us into that position.”
The scale of the trade finance opportunity in Africa is significant,
considering that the continent’s total exports alone grew to
US$498bn in 2013. The tightening of global credit availability due to
the withdrawal of traditionally dominant international financiers
has forced African businesses, particularly those engaged in
global trade and regional expans