West Bank

Stephen, thank you for having me.

Let me first start by just referencing the fact that, you know, First Trend through operating through our brands, F&B, RMB and West Bank.

I guess we've got a long track record of having... delivered financial services to communities in South Africa and across the continent.

So when we changed our focus, I guess we're building on a long track record of really having made sure that we are there to help support people's dreams and putting them in homes and supporting businesses, create employment opportunities.

We heard FDIC speak.

We talked about the Genius Act, Circle, West Bank announcing their stablecoin.

There's been a lot of conversation covering a wide variety of use cases that folks are encountering that not only have domestic implications, but open it up to a much more global conversation.

Right.

Now, that's a problem for whoever financed the secondhand one.

And in many cases, that's West Bank.

And so as a result of that, it has now set money aside against what repossessed cars will fetch.

And as a result, its bad debt charge rose 28%.

Judge lambastes drive-by valuations used by mortgage lenders seeking to repossess customers' homes and then charging the cost to their accounts.

On Business Day, Chinese cars reshape used market as West Bank warns of resale risk.

Morning markets rest... read rather across the board.

In the US, the S&P 500 down six tenths of 1%.

Thank you, Bruce.

The growth is coming from our South African franchises and broad Africa portfolio in F&B, R&B and West Bank.

So F&B South Africa actually this year grew PBT up 13% and largely led by F&B retail.

So the last two years have been a story of consumers under pressure and the credit experience and the credit performance was under a lot of strain.