Parliament – The Postbank needed to cross one more hurdle before it started offering transactional services to South Africans, Telecommunications and Postal Service Minister Siyabonga Cwele told Parliament on Wednedsay.
"The ANC government will work flat out to meet the 3rd of July deadline of submitting the final application for the licence," Cwele said while speaking during the debate on President Jacob Zuma's state of the nation address.
In July last year, the South African Reserve Bank approved the South African Post Office's (Sapo's) first level application to establish a fully fledged bank.
Since then, Cwele said more progress has been made.
"The Postbank company registration is being finalised. Six names have been approved and are available to be appointed as board members of the Postbank board after undergoing the ‘fit and proper assessment’ by the SA Reserve Bank," he said.
"The financial risk modelling and capital adequacy of the Postbank has been finalised. The bank is well capitalised to the tune of more than R1.4 billion."
The minister said there was one m more "difficult hurdle, and that was finding a resolution to challenges around the bank's controlling company, which would be done in consultation with Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and cabinet.
"The challenge is around the interpretation of the banking act which may need amendment. We are currently sharing legal opinions which suggest this may not be necessary."
While Sapo chief executive Mark Barnes has been quoted as saying the intention was not to compete with commercial banks, Cwele indicated the focus was on changing the big banks' "monopolistic behaviour".
"There is a need to review the financial sector charters as it relates to access to finance to small informal businesses, financial inclusion, affordability and indeed the bank charges which remain very high."
As envisaged by the social development department, the Post Bank would in the medium to long term also likely help with the distribution of welfare grants.
"It [Postbank] is a state bank which seeks to promote universal access to banking while at the same time providing a platform for the disbursement of various state transactions, such as social grants," said Cwele.