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Voluntary announcement relating to media article on South African credit environment
Standard Bank Group Limited
Registration No. 1969/017128/06
Incorporated in the Republic of South Africa
JSE share code: SBK
ISIN: ZAE000109815
NSX share code: SNB
NSX share code: SNB ZAE000109815
(“Standard Bank Group” or “the group”)
Voluntary announcement relating to media article on South African credit environment
In response to a media query received yesterday, we provided a reply to a set of questions from
Bloomberg. The full response is provided below for clarification.
‘The pressure on consumers from higher transport, food and electricity prices and higher domestic
interest rates combined with subdued improvement in real incomes is likely to persist for the
remainder of 2014 and into 2015. In this environment, impairments incurred on lending to our retail
customers in South Africa, which have moved higher over the last year, are likely to remain at these
slightly elevated levels but we are not anticipating a substantial spike in impairments. With respect
to unsecured lending in the lower income segment, we reduced risk appetite substantially in late
2012 and this action has brought down our loss rates this year in unsecured lending. We are
maintaining a cautious but pragmatic approach to the extension of credit into the consumer market
but we have good information on our customers which we are using to price appropriately for risk.
Close monitoring of accounts to identify early signs of stress and proactive action including strong
communication with our customers are important components of our risk mitigation strategy. We
believe that the consumer market is likely to feel the effects of high inflation and subdued economic
growth until there is a balanced pick-up in the global economy and with it more stable commodity
prices and domestic currency.’
Johannesburg
3 October 2014
Lead sponsor
The Standard Bank of South Africa Limited
Independent sponsor
Deutsche Securities (SA) Proprietary Limited
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