South Africa’s Postbank to become separate company

South African Post Office (SAPO) has said their banking unit, Postbank, will be transformed into a separate company next year to better position it in the country’s financial sector, reports Reuters.

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“Postbank would be corporatised next year as a stand-alone company within the South African Post Office group,” SAPO said in a statement.

The restructuring of the unit is part of government strategy to provide a wider range of accessible, relevant and affordable financial services products to those without bank accounts and low-income earners, reports Reuters.

Postbank, whose deposits rose 14% to 3.3bn rand ($446m) in the year to end-March, has the biggest share of low-cost “Mzansi” accounts, introduced by South African banks in 2004 to extend banking services to the poor.

Postbank is expected to eventually operate as a fully fledged bank competing with the big four retail banks -Absa, Standard Bank, Nedbank and FirstRand.