Moneyweb reports that:
ABSA agreed to lend an 81-year-old client R350 000 to help his daughter’s business. Group, the South African bank controlled by Barclays Plc, said it may appeal a charge of “reckless lending” handed down by the Port Elizabeth Magistrate’s Court.
About 20 months ago, ABSA agreed to lend an unidentified 81-year-old client R350 000 to help his daughter’s business, Louis von Zeuner, deputy chief executive of the bank, said. The daughter stood surety and was a guarantor on the loan, he said.
“Now it appears her business didn’t do what was …

The National Credit Regulator responded  to the drafting debacle of the National Credit Act, in particular in relation to its debt counselling provisions, by firstly bringing the High Court application for declaratory order. Subsequent to the order being made the National Credit Regulator has been proactive in December 2009 appointing a Debt Counselling Task Team headed up by former advocate and banking ombudsman and consisting of players from both sides of the fence in Peter Setou, Paul Slot,  Johan de Ridder and Rob Easton-Berry.
The mandate of the task team was to:
• Identify the primary causes for the current …

Florence de Vries of Business Report:
“Despite promising signs of recovery in the domestic economy, South African consumers continue to face financial stress resulting from high levels of unemployment and their inability to afford necessary goods and services.
During the first quarter of the year the FNB/Bureau for Economic Research (BER) consumer confidence index rose to 15 from 6. However, in that same period financially vulnerable consumers in the income bracket of R30 000 to R100 000 a year were cashing in on endowment policies and accessing retirement annuities to cover household …

Fin24.com reports:
“ The registration of two non-compliant debt counsellors has been cancelled, the National Consumer Tribunal (NCT) said on Tuesday.
This was in response to applications brought by the National Credit Regulator (NCR), the NCT said in a statement.
Petrus Martinus Ferreira trading as Ferreira Debt Counsellors (FDC) had his registration cancelled.
Ralph Zulu of GNR and Associates had his registration cancelled, but it was suspended for one year.
This meant that should Zulu contravene the National Credit Act (NCA) again within a year, he would not be allowed to continue with his business.
“Both these …

The Companies Act, the latest in a series of shockingly drafted legislation coming from the department of Trade and Industry is rightfully coming under some heavy criticism, as reported in the Mail and Guardian by Ilham Rawwot:
“A war is raging over the new Companies Act between prominent critics from the financial and legal sector and the Department of Trade and Industry.
The key complaints are that the drafting of the Act was driven by foreigners who do not have sufficient knowledge of local conditions, there was insufficient consultation, submissions by local …

Nasreen Seria in Business Report:
Consumer spending increased for the first time in six quarters in the final three months of last year, as wages increased and job losses eased, improving the outlook for growth this year.
Household expenditure increased an annualised 1.4 percent after dropping a revised 1.9 percent in the third quarter, the Reserve Bank said in its Quarterly Bulletin yesterday. Spending had contracted every quarter since the three months to September 2008 and fell 3.1 percent last year, the first annual decline since 1992.
Consumers account for two-thirds of expenditure …

The big question being asked by those involved in the credit risk management industry and generally is are we out of those dreaded recession “woods”?
From purely a practical personal perception the answer would be no. The number of bad debt hand-overs decreased toward the end of last year only to bounce back in February and March of this year, particularly businesses being handed over.
However Moody’s being reported in Business Report has stated the opposite:
“South Africa’s economic recovery has “arrived with a bang”, says Kristin Lindow, a senior vice-president at international …

Stats SA has release the following information:
The number of civil summonses issued for debt increases
In the three months ended November 2009 reflected a 5,1% increase in the total number of civil summonses issued for debt compared with the three months ended November 2008. An increase of 8,1% was recorded between November 2008 and November 2009 .
The major contributors to the increase in civil summonses issued for debt for the three months ended November 2009 compared with the three months ended November 2008 were civil summonses issued in respect of money …

Stats SA released the key findings regarding liquidations for August 2009.
The total number of liquidations increases at slower rate. The  total  number  of  liquidations  recorded  for  the  first  eight  months  of  2009  increased  by  29,7%  (from  2 037  to 2 643) compared with the first eight months of 2008. However, the total number of liquidations recorded for August 2009 decreased by 7,4% (from 285 to 264) compared with August 2008, due to decreases in the transport, storage, communication  and  the  financing,  insurance,  real  estate,  business  services  categories  (22  and  13  …

Reporting from Reuters Business Report :
“Growth in South Africa’s private sector credit is likely to have slowed further in August on the back of the country’s first recession since 1992.
A Reuters poll of 12 economist on Friday showed private sector credit extension (PSCE) is seen slowing further to 2.75 percent in the year to August — which would be the lowest rate of growth in more than 5 years — from 3.4 percent in July.
High levels of consumer debt and job insecurity have seen households cut back on credit, while …