Ex-Absa heavyweight to take independent investment banking firm to new heights Johannesburg – 18 June 2013 – Meet Bravura’s new CEO Bravura is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr Andries du Plessis who joins the firm today as Chief Executive Officer. Known to everyone as Adie, his deep financial services expertise and experience with financial governance, coupled with his finely honed entrepreneurial skills, make him the ideal person to strengthen the management of Bravura and lead it into the next stage of its growth. Looking back, shortly after Bravura was founded in Johannesburg in 1999, the South African banking industry faced a crisis that saw several large established financial services companies fail. Through this … [Read more...]

News release from Ashburton Investments 11 June 2013 FirstRand introduces new investment management franchise Ashburton Investments Differentiated offering in investment management landscape FirstRand Limited (FirstRand) today introduced to investors its new generation investment management franchise Ashburton Investments, which will now be the Group’s fourth financial services franchise alongside FNB, RMB and WesBank. Since Momentum was unbundled from the Group in 2009 asset management has been an identified gap in the Group’s portfolio. “FirstRand’s stated strategy is to participate in all the profit pools in financial services” said FirstRand CEO Sizwe Nxasana. “We believe have the appropriate platforms and … [Read more...]

NEWS RELEASE Visa launches first African Integration Index in South Africa • South Africa’s integration improving • Low levels of regional integration amongst African countries • Africa still offers major growth potential SOUTH AFRICA, 5 June 2013 – Visa in South Africa today launched the first Visa Africa Integration Index that measures the degree of economic integration within key trade corridors of sub-Saharan Africa, namely West Africa, East Africa and Southern Africa. Together with its partners, global payments company Visa touches 500 million people in these key African markets. Rationale Mandy Lamb, Acting General Manager for Visa sub-Saharan Africa, said: “There is growing evidence that supports the … [Read more...]

The 2nd Banking Channel Management Conference is once again set to be held in Johannesburg on the 14 & 15 August 2013. The first Banking Channel Management Conference 2012 that was held last year attracted nearly 80 delegates and was well received. Post event feedback included comments such as: ‘It was a very informative conference’, ‘the speakers were great’, ‘interesting perspective on how the market thinks about channel innovation’, ‘it was a very good agenda with speakers’ and ‘very informative content.’ The new and improved 2013 conference features 8 categories including the overview, different banking channels, channel innovation, technology developments, planning and organising, implementation, marketing … [Read more...]

The 3rd Annual Southern Africa Payments Conference and Exhibition 2013 is set to be even more informative and thought-provoking than ever before. One of Trade Conferences Internationals most anticipated conferences will once again take place in Johannesburg on 18 and 19 September 2013 at Emperors Palace, Kempton Park and will boast a speaker panel of highly regarded payment industry experts. With a multi-faceted revamped programme, speaker presentations will explore the change in many local and international payment trends as well as predict how these trends will impact the future of the payment industry. Trends such as; mobile payments, mobile wallets, payments security, Omni-commerce, consumer behaviour changes, relationship … [Read more...]

KENAKO MALL OPENS ITS DOORS And the consumers “like” it. [Cape Town] Judging by the success Kenako Mall enjoyed during the official opening towards the end of April, Pointbreak Investment Management and Kenako’s investors, Shoprite Group and Prima Retail Properties, are confident that this ground breaking development of R195 million will set the tone for future township mall development. The 19 000 m² mall is ideally placed in one of Port Elizabeth’s biggest townships, with a catchment area of more than 340 000 shoppers and an estimated retail potential of R1,2 billion. Besides the 4 000 m² Shoprite, other top brands as tenants include Truworths, Ackermans, Pep, Clicks, Mr Price, Tekkie Town, Capitec, Standard Bank, Hungry … [Read more...]

This year, TCI’s GRC conference will feature one of the key players in the South African Risk and Advisory sector. Jayesh Mowjee, Business Manager; Security Solutions at Gijima will be addressing issues surrounding cybercrime and its impact on GRC processes. Cybercrime has been under serious spotlight lately for its target on companies whose core function is information management. As the leading Security Solutions Manager, Mowjee has been part of the development of innovative cutting edge solutions at Gijima; they have sought to address burning issues that government faces across its various tiers such as the security based division. The conference will be held on 5th-6th of June 2013 at the Fabz Hotel, Lonehill, Johannesburg. Some of … [Read more...]

The 2nd Annual Governance, Risk and Compliance Conference will introduce attending delegates to insightful and informative ideas that most companies must apply in areas such as such governance, enterprise risk, compliance, information security and GRC frameworks. The conference will give delegates the opportunity to explore new models and innovative GRC strategies which they can use to improve and enhance overall companies’ performance levels. The conference will be held on the 5 & 6 June at Fabz Hotel in Lonehill, Johannesburg Some of the topics to be addressed include: • GRC strategy & implementation, • POPI and global security, • Companies Act requirements, • GRC strategies and their impact on cloud … [Read more...]

Mobile Money Africa returns to Johannesburg in May South Africa remains one of the most diverse regions in Africa for its proliferation of successful mobile money business models being championed by banks, MNOs (mobile network operators), third party providers and retailers. This is according to Emma Pearce, director of the upcoming, annual Mobile Money Africa conference and exhibition, which will again gather the continent’s leading industry experts in Johannesburg from 28-29 May. Says Emma: “We have seen some of the most compelling mobile payments case studies come from South Africa and the market continues to reinvent itself and innovate its offerings. Johannesburg is the perfect backdrop for Mobile Money Africa, as it is one … [Read more...]

Africa is determined as a destination with opportunities due to the large scale potential the region has particularly in providing financial services to the mass population. Mobile financial services and other means of electronic money have always submerged in this market where banks and external agencies are tapping in the region to invest more into providing financial services to the mass population including the unbanked, under-banked and the poorest of the poor. Africa’s main challenges in retail banking lie within delivering secured banking services, loyalty programs, embedding a customer focused banking to serve clients better across all segments including micro, mass, affluent, SMEs and being more socially responsible and … [Read more...]

A two day conference on achieving banking operational excellence Johannesburg – South Africa, 10 April 2013: The 2nd Annual OPEX Africa 2013, commenced today at Hyatt Regency. The forum will witness a unique exchange of ideas on process change management, customer engagement to process centralization and business growth. This forum was opened by the event chairman, Pritesh Kotecha, Vice President Middle East, South Asia and Africa at Smart Stream Technologies. Kotecha will later be moderating the two highlighted sessions of the day - the COO Panel entitled.”From Banking & Beyond” and the panel discussion on Change management – How Essential is it? The keynote speech titled “Operational Excellence – The Road … [Read more...]

Banking the unbanked market! Major banking and financial institutions are expected to attend the Inclusive Banking event which will take place on the 29th & 30th May 2013 at the Indaba Hotel, Fourways, Johannesburg. The conference programme will be addressing everything there is to know regarding the inclusive banking industry in Southern Africa at present - from overview, pillars of inclusive banking, innovation and technology, branchless banking, unsecured lending, vehicles for banking the entry level market, affordable housing, and consumer education. It will be directed at the professionals who deal with the key pillars in financial inclusion such as savings, credit, transactions, insurance and global case studies to name a … [Read more...]

There are not many ways to lower your insurance premium, as your insurance premium is calculated on a huge variety of factors. There is a common misconception in the market that if your vehicle value depreciates, your car insurance must also decrease. To be honest it does make logical sense to argue that, but that argument is only based on one of many things that the insurer takes into consideration to calculate your insurance premium. So what are the other factors that insurers use to calculate your insurance premium? The more obvious answers is your risk, address (location), age, how long you’ve had your license, etc.. will have an impact on your premium. That is why these questions are asked when taking out your new insurance … [Read more...]

2nd Annual OPEX Africa 2013 will engage in industry peers and operational experts from Standard Bank , Rand Merchant Bank, Chase Bank, Standard Bank Africa, Kenya Commercial Bank, RMB Corporate Banking, GARP, ABSA, Ecobank, Nedbank Africa, First Bank of Nigeria Plc and many other banking and financial institutions. The African banking sector is set to attain new levels of achievement as it is the fastest growing economic region in the world. With the help of operational excellence, banking professionals can establish stronger customer relations and provide exceptional customer service in the African region. 2nd Annual OPEX Africa 2013 will provide a progressive platform to COOs, CIOs and the heads of financial operations and … [Read more...]

It has always been challenging for banks to adopt new technology and provide the same level of service to their customers. With the growth of ISO and Six Sigma, there is a need for banks to re-evaluate their non value adding entities into more fruitful processes. This is the right time to change the global perspective of banks which will make them more competitive in the current economic scenario. The second edition of OPEX Africa, to be held on 10 - 11 April 2013 in Johannesburg, will feature key strategists within the banking and financial community across Africa who will brainstorm new ideas in order to become world class competitors. Some of the key benefits of launching OPEX in financial institutes are eliminating repetitive … [Read more...]