South Africa’s banking sector — arguably the most developed on the African continent — remains resilient even as the economic challenges in the country mount. While the economy has shown tentative recovery after a series of stringent lockdown measures during the Covid-19 pandemic, flooding in the KwaZulu-Natal region, extensive blackouts and high levels of corruption have acted as a brake on economic activity.
Despite such challenges, the banking sector as a whole has proved robust. The country’s five largest lenders returned to profit growth in 2021, in a trend that has further accelerated in 2022.
