African Bank – Ratings Upgrade Announcement

Today saw African Bank receiving a welcome S&P Global Ratings upgrade in recognition of the progress made by the bank in strengthening its balance sheet and introducing additional financial product offerings. The Bank indicated that this was also recognition and affirmation of its founding purpose: That of making banking accessible to all South Africans.

S&P Global Ratings announced on 1 July 2025 African Bank’s long-term global scale issuer credit rating upgrade to ‘B+’ from ‘B,’ with a stable outlook, and affirmed the short-term global scale rating at ‘B.’ And the South Africa national scale ratings were also raised to ‘zaA/zaA-1’ from ‘zaA-/zaA-2’.

A Bank Progressing

African Bank was placed under curatorship on August 10, 2014 in terms of the bank act of 1994. This action was taken by the Registrar of Banks and the Minister of Finance, and was implemented to allow the South African Reserve Bank to implement a resolution plan aimed at ensuring the future viability of the bank. 

There has been a ten year journey of recuperation with a new entity regenerated that has now shown positive progress and while the South African Reserve Bank still holds a 50% share of the bank, these positive results may allow it to exit its shareholding.

African Bank Group CEO Kennedy Bungane commented saying: “This upgrade acknowledges the work we have put in over the last few years and gives us further confidence that we are on the right track. It reflects on our financial performance, capitalisation and improved asset quality while expanding our offerings to our customers.

“As we mark 50 years, the new rating enhances our reputation and positions us strongly as we continue our journey towards becoming a listed institution which is another step in our commitment to build a customer-centric, digital enabled diversified business that is scalable and sustainable.”

Financial Results Also indicate Positive Growth

The announcement also follow on from the recent interim financial results, released by the bank, for the six month period ending 31 March 2025, which saw net profit after tax increase by 15% to R202 million.

Additional results Highlights Include:

• Net advances grew by 20% to reach R39 billion
• Business and Commercial net advances growth of 49%
• Customer base hit 6.1 million customers, a growth of 6%
• Non-interest income growth of 38%
• Credit loss ratio improvement to reduced to 5.3%
• Capital adequacy ratio was stable at 28%.

African Bank Chief Financial Officer Anbann Chetti says: “Our growth has been driven by our disciplined approach to risk and compliance management, strategic diversification of our balance sheet and increased digital enhancements across the business. The Excelerate strategy is positioning us to deliver long-term value for all our stakeholders.”

Key strategic enablers include leadership alignment for a listed environment, regulatory compliance and inclusive ownership models that reflect African Bank’s founding values: “As we continue on our journey, we are building a future-fit bank with the scale and agility to serve more South Africans,” Bungane concludes.