The year was 2018, Capitec bank has just been rocked by the release of a report by Viceroy Research a limited liability company registered in Delaware, USA. They are an investigative financial research group. They released a report titled: Capitec: A Wolf in Sheeps Clothing, where they made damning claims against the former micro-lender, calling the bank a loan shark headed for insolvency.

The research report said that its analysis pointed to predatory lending practices from Capitec, where clients would be pushed to take out new loans to pay off the old ones, while being charged initiation fees and incurring other costs.

7|Page

PBA4807

JULY/AUGUST 2021 PORTFOLIO EXAMINATION

This, Viceroy said, was clouding Capitecs true impairment liabilities on its loan book, which it said was sitting at around R11 billion and could push the bank to the brink of insolvency, much in the same vein as African Bank years before.

We consider Capitec to be uninvestable, it said, while calling for the Reserve Bank to step in and put the bank under curatorship.

Capitecs share price tanked as much as 25% on the day, before pulling back. By 17h00 on Tuesday, the banks share price was back to just under R900, down only 4.7% from its opening price of R920.

(source: Business tech, accessed, June 2021)

In addition to the management of the bank disproving the allegations, an important voice in the name of the SARB also offered its support for the bank.

Required:

1. In your opinion why is the voice of The Reserve Bank important in this regard? (5 marks)

2. What could have happened had they been silent? (5 marks)