Year-on-year house price deflation worsened in December to -1,7%, First National Bank said on Monday as it released its house price index.
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/ 18 November 2008
Township property markets are more buoyant than suburban ones, according to a recent property barometer report.
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/ 30 October 2008
Banking Crisis: Maya Fisher-French looks at how the global meltdown affects your pocket.
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/ 29 September 2008
The Financial Sector Charter, like the Competition Commissions bank charges enquiry, has pushed a reluctant industry into thinking out of the box.
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/ 24 September 2008
Mobile banking has not yet transformed the unbanked but successes are notching up with the right strategies in place, writes Maya Fisher-French
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/ 4 September 2008
The FNB house price index recorded 2,3% year-on-year price inflation in August, compared with 3,5% in July, the bank said on Thursday.
FNB and the banking ombudsman have agreed that FNB’s criteria for reassessing some home loans are ”fair and equitable”.
FNB says it is not withdrawing already approved bonds, but rather ”reassessing” those bonds where homes have not yet been transferred.
The number of South Africans who give emigration as the reason for selling their home has shot up in recent months.
Nearly 90% of home sellers are unable to sell their properties at the asking price, reflecting declining prices in a high interest-rate environment.
SA banks have not been discouraged by the ongoing spate of bombings of ATMs and will continue to provide financial services in remote areas.
Entrepreneurs usually focus on their businesses and often, little time is spent on planning for retirement.
Planning for old age is crucial.
The Competition Commission looks to streamline debit order systems, writes Maya Fisher-French.
South African banking charges were higher than they would be at competitive levels, according to a Competition Commission enquiry report.
By far the most interesting service that banks recently introduced to their businessÂowner clients is an online accounting package, introduced by FNB.
FNB has come to the market with an aggressive pricing package that provides free and unlimited electronic banking for R66 a month.
In a series of three ATM bombings in less than half a day in Gauteng, gangs of robbers on Friday morning made off with undisclosed sums of cash. In Strijdompark in Randburg, a Standard Bank ATM was blown up at the Motor City Centre, Gauteng police said. ATMs in Atteridgeville and Orange Farm were also targeted.
Mining magnate Brett Kebble gave about R260 000 to the former African National Congress chief whip Tony Yengeni, according to the trustees of Kebble’s bankrupt estate, a media report said on Friday. This allegation was contained in affidavits in an application for a summary judgement that would force Yengeni to pay this amount back to the estate.
Telkom’s corporate and global customers have been made aware of a new refund scam which is currently doing the rounds, the listed telecoms giant said on Monday. The modus operandi involved the criminals pretending to be Reuben September, Telkom’s CEO.
Najwa Petersen’s legal team is fighting a bid by the state to lead evidence on what her husband, Taliep, told a sister about the state of their marriage, and how Najwa stabbed him. Najwa is in the dock in the Cape High Court along with three men she allegedly hired to murder Taliep on the night of December 16 2006.
First National Bank’s residential property barometer has dropped to the lowest level recorded for any quarter since its inception in 2003, media reports said on Monday. Up to 83% of people selling their houses had to accept a much lower offer than their asking price.
Building activity in South Africa continues to be negatively affected by the rising level of interest rates, high input costs and the slowdown in consumer demand. This trend will probably continue, as further monetary policy tightening is very likely, given that consumer inflation is expected to remain elevated for the rest of this year.
Consumer confidence in South Africa has fallen to a four-year low, according to the latest consumer confidence index by First National Bank and Stellenbosch University’s Bureau for Economic Research (FNB/BER), released on Tuesday. According to FNB/BER index, consumer confidence declined by 10 index points.
Eight ATMs have been bombed in South Africa in less than a week, an escalating trend that has become a nearly daily offence in the crime-ridden country, police said on Monday. Three police officers and two civilians appeared in court on Monday in connection with the bombing of a cash machine last week, said police spokesperson Louis Jacobs.
South African banking group FirstRand on Friday said it was not in talks with a Chinese bank over selling a stake. ”We are not in discussions with a Chinese bank,” FirstRand spokesperson Sam Moss said. Shares in FirstRand rose earlier on Friday after the China Daily reported that a state-owned Chinese bank was in talks to buy a stake in First National Bank.
A major, but unidentified Chinese bank is in talks to buy a stake in South Africa’s second-largest lender First National Bank, a media report said on Friday. If carried out, the transaction will follow in the footsteps of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, which recently agreed to buy a 20% stake in Standard Bank.
First National Bank’s (FNB) ”million-a-month account” competition is an illegal lottery, the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) ruled on Friday. The SCA dismissed the bank’s appeal against a Pretoria High Court declaratory order, according to which the bank’s competition was a lottery prohibited by the Lotteries Act.
The current global economic turmoil is unlikely to ”impoverish” South Africa and there is some good in the weaker rand, according to First National Bank chief economist Cees Bruggemans. Commenting on the falling rand on Monday, Bruggemans said the good news is that it is the shock absorber of the moment.
An armed gang stormed into a Durban bank on Friday, holding staff and customers at gunpoint, KwaZulu-Natal police said. ”Five armed suspects entered, took cash and a customer’s vehicle and fled,” said Superintendent Willie Olivier of Durban’s Organised Crime Unit
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/ 20 February 2008
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel’s national budget charts a pragmatic course that offers hope for better times ahead, the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry said on Wednesday. The budget has a definite business-friendly undertone, Citadel chief investment officer Jan van Niekerk said.
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/ 11 February 2008
Residential market activity levels dropped to 5,1 from 5,3 in the fourth quarter of last year, according to First National Bank’s (FNB) Residential Property Confidence Indicator. FNB research indicated that constraining factors continued to be rising interest rates, inflationary pressures and the effect of the National Credit Act.
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/ 23 January 2008
With most formal banks inaccessible to many Africans, the service of cellphone banking is expanding to the poor on the continent. Mary Kimani examines how financial institutions are extending their services through the ubiquitous usage of cellphones in rural areas.