Capitec Commentary: S&P Downgrade

S&P Global Ratings (“S&P”) has unfortunately revised its outlook for South Africa to negative. As a result the ratings of all financial institutions in the country will also be revised to negative. This is in line with S&P’s policy not to rate finance institutions higher than the long term outlook for a country.

While the decision is regrettable for a country working hard to kickstart its economy, Capitec says it will maintain its unwavering focus of helping South Africans simplify their banking in order to live better. The bank is helping over 13.5-million South Africans improve their financial lives.

Gerrie Fourie, CEO of Capitec and 2019 Business Leader of the Year at the Sunday Times Top 100 Companies Awards says he believes that South Africa is in a much more positive place than it was two years ago. “There remains a wealth of positive opportunities in South Africa. We need to avoid a negative mindset getting in the way of us seeing and exploiting these opportunities.”

Fourie says South Africa needs to focus on growth and creating jobs. “And we need to improve the effectiveness of our execution – it is great to make big plans, we now need to get far better at making these plans come to life.”

ENDS