Business Day Spotlight

In this edition of the Business Day Spotlight, we take a look at how coronavirus has impacted South Africans ability to make debt payments. Our host Mudiwa Gavaza is joined by Punki Modise, chief financial officer for retail and business banking at Absa to discuss the impact of Covid-19 on the financial services sector. Absa recently launched its payment relief programme at the end of March to give people the ability to delay certain loan or debt payments due for a period three months. The discussion also touches on rationale for instituting this programme for its customers, the relationship between GDP and the banking sector, some of the pressure points that customers are feeling at the moment, how consumers and businesses at various income levels have been impacted by Covid-19 and an outlook for the retail and business banking sector for 2020.