Nedbank, one of South Africa's big four banks, has handed shareholders a set of half-year numbers that look, at first glance, like a bank stuck in neutral. Headline earnings, the cleaned-up profit figure listed companies must report, came in at R8.4 billion for the six months to end-June, up just 0.1% on the same stretch last year. The bank says even that flat result beat its own expectations for the start of the year.
The number behind the number
The flat line hides a stronger story. Last year's figures still carried income from Nedbank's stake in the pan-African lender Ecobank, which it sold in 2025; strip that one-off out, and underlying profit actually grew 12%. Chief executive Jason Quinn put the improvement down to the client-focused overhaul he began in 2025. The supporting numbers back him up: revenue rose 6% to R38.2 billion, the bank now serves 8 million clients after 4% growth, return on equity held at 15%, comfortably above its 14% cost of equity, and the interim dividend was lifted to 1,052 cents a share. Its credit loss ratio did tick up to 95 basis points as impairments rose.
One less seat at the top
The bigger signal is structural. In the same results, Nedbank confirmed that group chief operating officer Mfundo Nkuhlu, 60, will take early retirement in December after more than two decades at the group, and that it will not replace him. The chief operating officer role will be scrapped altogether, its duties spread across the existing executive committee, leaving Nedbank structured like rivals Capitec and Absa, which already run without one.
Quinn's pitch is that this is a bank turning a corner, not stalling. Nedbank expects profit growth to pick up in the second half, is aiming for a return on equity of around 17% by 2028, and is pushing deeper into East Africa, where its offer for East African lender NCBA Group, which serves some 60 million clients, has locked in a controlling 66% stake. Whether a leaner top table and a flat first half give way to the growth it is promising is what the next set of results will have to show.
