FNB officially launches in Tanzania

First National Bank, a division of FirstRand Bank Limited has announced the official launch of First National Bank Tanzania Limited. Since commencing their operations in July 2011, FNB's operations have performed well in Tanzania and are in line with expectations illustrating the sound investment and business opportunity provided in the country. Read more >>

Technology blamed for EPWP payment delays

The North West government says a technical glitch - and not the unavailability of funds or human error - is to blame for the delay in the processing of payments for over 7 000 Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) employees. Read more >>

ATM Solutions opens a branch to service Mpumalanga region

South African home-grown company ATM Solutions recently celebrated the opening of its seventh branch, which has been up and running since November last year and is situated in Witbank in Mpumalanga. Read more >>

Can you afford to retire comfortably?

[Rowan Burger] As a South African it's time to think seriously about your retirement plan and be cognisant of our changing world of work. In the UK,20-year-olds are three times more likely to get to 100 than their grandparents; one-quarter of 16-year-olds are expected to make this milestone. While people are living much longer worldwide, AIDS masks the effects of improvements in living conditions and health care that most South Africans will enjoy. Read more >>

Ethos Private Equity acquires Kevro for R850 million

Nedbank Corporate Banking has provided a six-year term debt package and general banking facility to Kevro (Pty) Ltd as part of the R850 million acquisition by Ethos Private Equity. Nedbank acted as lead debt arranger and underwriter in the Ethos-led acquisition. Read more >>

Financial adviser numbers increase in spite of high drop-out rate

The number of registered financial advisers active in the South African life insurance industry increased over the past year as life assurers and corporate advisory firms stepped up their recruitment efforts, introducing approximately 3 800 new intermediaries to the industry. However, due to a high drop-out rate of intermediaries, the net gain in terms of adviser numbers was approximately 700, taking the life insurance industry's total to around 17 400. Read more >>

Gordhan's budget should boost business confidence

South Africa's upcoming Budget Speech needs to boost business confidence while at the same time, 2012 needs to be a year of implementation, says Business Unity South Africa (BUSA). Read more >>

780 new malicious programs designed to steal users' online banking data detected every day

MOSCOW, RUSSIA / JOHANNESBURG, SA: According to Kaspersky Security Network data, over the last three months Trojan bankers have been detected on an average of 2000 unique users' computers every day. Moreover, 780 signatures for new malicious programs that target sensitive financial information are added to Kaspersky Lab's antivirus database on a daily basis - that is 1.1% of the total number of malware detected every day by the company's software. Read more >>

US customer satisfaction grows for financial institutions and banking websites in 2011

RESTON, US: comScore, Inc, a leader in measuring the digital world, has released the 2011 edition of its annual State of Online and Mobile Banking report, which provides a comprehensive view of the key online and mobile banking trends in the US in 2011. Read more >>

Transnet delay costs SA billions: DA

The DA has accused the Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) of "dragging its feet" and losing out on potentially billions of rands from Africa's lucrative west coast gas and oil-platform repair business. Read more >>

Manufacturing to boost GDP on resurgent PMI

Although most economists are downgrading their 2012 SA gross domestic product (GDP) forecasts, a resurgent seasonally adjusted Kagiso Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) in January could mean a revising of forecasts upwards in coming months as production finally catches up with strong consumer demand. Read more >>