Investec Bank aims to bring private banking services to South Africa’s corporate mid-market segment, which it says is often under-serviced by the major banks.
Speaking at a media roundtable in Johannesburg, Nick Riley, head of Investec Business and Commercial Banking, said Investec is confident it has the ‘right to win’ and can disrupt the segment through service and competitive pricing.
He said the group was targeting businesses with a turnover of between R30m and R1.5bn, which generate about R600bn in loans.
The aim was to win over 10,000 clients in this segment and contribute to the overall increase of at least 200 basis points in the group’s return on equity by 2030.
Riley said the competition was rife for businesses with a turnover of zero to R30m, and this isn’t a focus for the bank.
He said the group has 3,500 business and commercial banking clients, with a focus on converting more of these relationships into fully active, primary banking clients.
“Our clients have said to us, if you can do for my business what you do for me personally, we’ll move our bank tomorrow,” he said.
He said the group was aware it would not be easy to win clients who had been serviced by competitors for years.
“We don’t underestimate the importance of that private banking for your business, because that is the gold standard. We need to make sure we deliver to this client segment. But we are very confident, because this is what we do. We differentiate by our service. So we feel it is a natural progression for us,” he said.
TimesLIVE
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