African Bank's upgraded S&P rating affirms strategy to continue building a fully-fledged bank

Johannesburg - African Bank welcomes the latest S&P Global Ratings upgrade as recognition of the progress made in strengthening its balance sheet, diversifying its offerings, and reaffirming its founding purpose: to make 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'.

African Bank Group CEO Kennedy Bungane says: "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."

The S&P announcement comes on the heels of African Bank's interim financial results for the six months ended 31 March 2025, which saw net profit after tax increase by 15% to R202 million.

The Group also reported:

• Net advances up 20% to R39 billion
• Business and Commercial net advances up 49%
• Customer base growth of 6% to 6.1 million
• Non-interest income growth of 38%
• Credit loss ratio improvement to 5.3% and
• Capital adequacy ratio 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.