African Bank has reported a decline in earnings, hit by rising bad debt. Credit losses had the biggest negative impact on earnings, rising to R1.8 billion from R1.2 billion earlier.
The bank released its interim results for the six months ended 31 March 2026, posting a net after-tax loss of R624 million.
Interim Chief Executive Officer Zweli Manyathi says the results reflect a challenging operating environment.
He says the company is now betting on tighter credit controls to help stabilise performance.
“Specifically on credit risk, we actually redefine the risk appetite that we’re happy to take and technically, we have a probability of default of 14.5, and it’s proven to be too high, because on an actual basis, it’s 21. So, there’s something that’s very wrong. So, what we did is we introduced a new scorecard, but pulled back completely in the volumes,” he says.
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