SA banks Market Share: April 2026: Growth driven by Corporate loans and Retail VAF

Research evidence excerpt

SA banks Market Share: April 2026: Growth driven by Corporate loans and Retail VAF

25 June 2026

SA banks Market Share: Equities Commercial Banks

April 2026

Growth driven by Corporate loans and Retail VAF South Africa

◆ Y-o-y growth in core loans rises to 8.4% Henry Hall*

Banks Analyst

◆ Corporate loan growth remains robust HSBC Bank Middle East Limited, DIFC

henry.hall@hsbc.com

◆ Strong car sales takes y-o-y growth in Retail VAF to the highest +27 11 880 1855

level since 2014 HarishAssociatePaliwal*

Bangalore

Industry: Y-o-y growth in total industry loans slowed slightly from 8% in March to

7.7% in April. Y-o-y growth in core loans improved markedly from 7.4% in March to * Employed by a non-US affiliate of HSBC Securities (USA) Inc, and is

not registered/ qualified pursuant to FINRA regulations

8.4% in April, driven by Other private sector loans (mainly corporate) which is

growing at 12.8% and Retail VAF which is growing at 10.2% y-o-y.

Corporate loans: In 2Q26, the RMB/BER Business Confidence Index was at the lowest

level since 3Q24, reflecting, amongst others, the impact of the Middle East conflict.

Despite this, corporate loan growth remained resilient in April 2026, growing at 11.9%

y-o-y (vs 10.9% in March). Stanbank, the market leader, is showing the strongest y-o-

y growth (16.6%), increasing its market share by 100bp to 24.2%. It is followed by

Absa (12.8% y-o-y) lifting its market share by 20bp to 21.8%. Meanwhile, FirstRand

(9.8% y-o-y) and Nedbank (6.8% y-o-y) both lost market share – by 40bp and 80bp,

respectively – over the past twelve months. FirstRand’s loan growth is suppressed by

its originate-and-distribute strategy, although it said that it has scaled this back.

Retail VAF: NAAMSA reported 16.3% y-o-y growth in car sales in South Africa in