FINANCIAL SERVICES
to purchase equity in banks. Billions of rand in equity were
transferred into the hands of black shareholders.
The Charter expected banks to spend 50% of their procurement
budget on Black Economic Empowerment suppliers. Coovadia says
that by the end of 2008, about 62% of procurement budgets had
been spent on Black Economic Empowerment suppliers.
In driving access to cheaper financial services products, the
Financial Sector Charter led to the creation of millions of Mzansi
accounts, transactional accounts targeted at low-income earners
and increasing the unbanked population.
In 2008, more than 2.3 million active Mzansi accounts had been
opened. Over three million accounts were active, according to the
FinMark Trust, out of six million accounts that had been opened.
A 2009 research paper commissioned by the FinMark Trust,
The Mzansi Bank Account Initiative in South Africa showed that
the percentage of people aged 16 and over in South Africa who
were banked increased to 63% in 2008, up from 46% in 2004. This
means that the banked adult population rose from 13.2 million in
2004 to 20 million in 2008. The unbanked population fell to 11.9
million in 2008, compared to 15.8 million in 2004. The FinMark
Trust paper points out that the Mzansi account initiative exceeded
the Financial Sector Charter target of opening just over 2.1 million
active accounts by December 2008.
South Africa’s banking industry took further steps to improve
the Mzansi offering by opening up cheaper products which catered
for the low-end and the unbanked markets. Increased competition
among South African banks contributed to the creation of more
innovative products that