Bank bashing is a popular sport and never more so than now, when the big global banks have plunged the world into financial chaos and probably into serious economic recession. Having lent till they dropped, international banks are now reluctant to lend at all, despite all the measures taken to support them.
Local banks have also been criticised for slow lending, even though they are in a much sounder position than their peers abroad, in terms of liquidity and capital.
Standard Bank attempted to set the record straight on Thursday. Peter Schlebusch, chief executive for personal and business banking, admitted the bank's approval rate on applications coming through its branches had fallen from 58 percent a year ago to 50 percent. But he said this was "not a massive deterioration in loans granted to our own customers".
While banks are tightening lending criteria, they are not solely responsible for slower credit growth; consumers are reluctant to borrow, according to Schlebusch.
Customers had been forced to cut back sharply, he said. There had been a steady decline in spending on durable goods for a protracted period "and the gradient is still quite steep". He predicted it would take a while for the decline to "flatten out and then pick up".
Credit impairments were likely to go up slightly in 2009 from the R9 billion provision in the 2008 financial year, he said.
To moderate the increase in impairments, Schlebusch said, the bank was "being a bit more discerning in our lending and tending to focus on our own customers", where losses on loans were much lower.
The reason for this is that banks are better informed about their own clients and able to make a better judgment of their ability to repay new loans.
Above the turbulence
The monthly surveys carried out by the International Air Transport Association paint an increasingly gloomy picture of falling passenger demand and revenues.
According to the latest survey, Africa experienced the worst decline of all regions in February.
So at first glance it is not surprising that the results of low-cost airline 1Time for the year to December 2008 show an attributable loss of R9.8 million compared with profit of R28.5 million a year earlier.
However, looking more closely at the figures it released this week, a far more cheerful picture emerges of a carrier that took business from full-service airlines.
Gross revenue from the airline and the group's maintenance department rose substantially. Charter business revenues were down but it explained that was because growth of 18 percent in passenger numbers on scheduled flights meant fewer of its aircraft were available for charter work.
The technical division operated at close to full capacity for the year, lifting income from aircraft maintenance for third parties from R39.5 million to R49.9 million.
This is expected to increase substantially in the coming year after 1time bought a 72 percent stake in the former Safair Technical for R20 million in July, which it plans to amalgamate with its own Aeronexus maintenance operation.
It plans to employ another 600 highly skilled maintenance personnel, which it says will enable it to become the premier aircraft maintenance provider on the African continent.
So 1time's experience seems to be in line with those of some international airlines operating in the South African market, whose passenger numbers have risen on flights to and from this country while they have fallen in most of their other markets.
Making waves
It has been refreshing to witness the display of some accountability and oversight by ANC MPs since the Polokwane change in leadership in December 2007, according to Judith February, the head of Idasa's political information and monitoring service.
One of the matters MPs - in the ruling party as well as the opposition - had been critical about was the make-up of the SABC board, she told the Cape Town Press Club on Thursday.
Because of the dominance of the political party system, reinforced by the lack of constituencies and the selection of political representatives through party lists, party bosses - and their agents, the parliamentary whips - forced ordinary MPs to generally obey the party line.
But in recent days there has been the refreshing case of Health Minister Barbara Hogan criticising the government's decision to prevent the Dalai Lama from entering the country for a peace conference.
There was also the case of public enterprises committee chairman Fatima Kota calling SAA - and the cabinet - to account for the golden handshake given to ousted airline chief Khaya Ngqula.
This landed Public Enterprises Minister Brigitte Mabandla in a bit of a mess.
Hogan was criticised for disagreeing with the cabinet's official position on the visit by the Tibetan leader by government spokesperson Themba Maseko. He described it as unfortunate, noting that the matter of ministers behaving in this manner would need to be "addressed".
In a bizarre twist, the cabinet reversed its earlier criticism of the SAA board over Ngqula's benefits after Mabandla effectively admitted to not properly briefing her fellow ministers.
Mabandla, who attended the cabinet meeting where the decision was taken, had the grace to apologise, but explained that she had been briefed only on the broad thrust of the exit package, not the quantum, which was about R8 million.
Ominously Maseko said that if the president took "further steps" against Hogan, he would make an announcement at some stage. Mabandla was not mentioned.
It proves that what is good for the forgetful goose is not necessarily good for the political gander: there is one rule for Hogan, another for Mabandla. No prizes for guessing who is likely to get the chop first.
- Edited by Peter DeIonno with contributions by Ethel Hazelhurst, Audrey D'Angelo and Donwald Pressly.