> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.businessbagel.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # The Roundup — Friday, 18 September 2026 - URL: https://www.businessbagel.com/the-roundup-friday-18-september-2026/ - Published: 2026-09-18T04:00:27.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-18T04:00:26.000Z - Author: Christian Maidman Today’s edition Tough Call Good morning. Washington raised interest rates on Wednesday evening and the rand went with it, six days before our own Reserve Bank has to decide. Momentum cleared its R7 billion earnings target a full year before the plan asked for it. And African Bank named four new executives and confirmed it is cutting jobs on the same Wednesday. Everyone is working off a different calendar. Let’s get into it. --- MARKETS ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/97/24/9724ffa3-48e9-48a7-a5f7-e38b7d2c9b36/content/images/2026/09/markets--45-.png) --- HIKE AND SEEK ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/97/24/9724ffa3-48e9-48a7-a5f7-e38b7d2c9b36/content/images/2026/09/Article-US-interest-rates--1.png) ## The US raised interest rates for the first time in three years, and the rand fell within minutes On Wednesday evening, America raised interest rates for the first time since July 2023\. The Federal Open Market Committee voted 12-0 to increase rates by a quarter point, taking them to between 3.75% and 4%. The move came after core inflation in America ran hotter than expected in August. Here’s why South Africa cares. Simply put, when American interest rates rise, investors can earn a better return on their money there, making dollar investments more attractive and potentially pulling money out of places like South Africa. That leaves the rand with fewer buyers. Within minutes of the announcement, it moved from R16.26 to above R16.34 to the dollar. **That creates an awkward decision for the Reserve Bank next week:** - **South Africa’s interest rate is already at 7%,** while the economy shrank 0.2% last quarter. Normally, that would give the Bank good reason not to raise borrowing costs any further. - **Inflation expectations are also easing.** A new survey of analysts, businesses and unions found they expect inflation to fall further over the next few years, giving the Bank another reason to leave rates where they are. - **But America has now complicated that decision.** If South Africa holds rates while America raises theirs, the gap between the two gets smaller, potentially putting more pressure on the rand. So the decision is far from obvious. Financial markets currently see it as close to a 50/50 call whether the Reserve Bank raises rates again next week. [**Read the full story →**](https://www.businessbagel.com/fed-raises-rates-rand-falls-sarb-decides-23-september/) --- GATHERING MOMENTUM ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/97/24/9724ffa3-48e9-48a7-a5f7-e38b7d2c9b36/content/images/2026/09/Article-momentum--1.png) ## Momentum cleared its R7 billion target a year early, with less help from markets than last time Momentum set itself a number and then beat its own deadline to it. The Impact strategy asked for R7 billion in earnings, and the year to the end of June brought R7.06 billion, twelve months ahead of plan. That is the group’s own preferred measure, which leaves out the shares it holds in itself through a staff trust and the annual write-off of what it paid over the odds for businesses it bought. Take nothing out and the accounting profit is R6.81 billion. Chief executive Jeanette Marais says market movements did less of the work this year than last, and the spread is where that shows. Five of Momentum’s businesses each earned more than a billion rand, where Momentum Retail and Momentum Corporate used to manage it between them. Metropolitan Life got there on product design, costs and the quality of what its salespeople write, Momentum Investments after pulling a scattered portfolio behind one strategy, and Guardrisk after widening what it underwrites. Metropolitan’s new business sales fell 14% on the way, which Momentum counts as the point. The strategy that produced all of it has run out with it. Momentum says the one running to 2030 lands within twelve months, into a year its own management calls challenging. [**Read the full story →**](https://www.businessbagel.com/momentum-r7-billion-earnings-target-year-early/) --- BAGEL BITE **Which country has the most natural lakes?** **A.** Canada **B.** Russia **C.** Finland --- DOING THE ROUNDS ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/97/24/9724ffa3-48e9-48a7-a5f7-e38b7d2c9b36/content/images/2026/09/Article-african-bank--1.png) **African Bank is running a retrenchment process with nobody permanent in the finance seat.** Anbann Chetti resigned as chief financial officer with immediate effect on 11 September, and five days later the bank named four new executives and confirmed the cuts, which it first flagged in July as potentially costing 1 200 jobs and up to 90 branches. Behind all of it sits a R624 million loss for the six months to March. The bank calls this its operational consolidation phase.[**Full story →**](https://www.businessbagel.com/african-bank-new-executives-section-189a-retrenchment/) **PayInc tracks the real value of money running through South Africa’s electronic payment system, and in August that number rose for a second month.** Its index was up 0.8%, after a revised 0.6% in July. Independent economist Elize Kruger reads the two months together as a return to growth this quarter, at a moderate pace, after a second quarter in which the economy shrank. What she will not call it is safe: oil is back above $100 a barrel and petrol looks set to rise again in October.[**Full story →**](https://www.businessbagel.com/payinc-index-august-rise-second-month/) **The crypto industry has spent heavily trying to get the United States to write it a rulebook, and on Tuesday the Senate would not even open debate on one.** The Clarity Act needed 60 votes to proceed and the roll call records 49 in favour, 50 against. Four Republicans voted with every Democrat, and Thom Tillis switched to no so the bill can return later. Congress now leaves for the midterms, and the rule-writing falls to regulators, whose rules a court or an election can undo.[**Full story →**](https://www.businessbagel.com/senate-blocks-clarity-act-crypto-market-structure-bill/) **South Africa’s green hydrogen plans have lived on a list until now, and on Tuesday government named the six projects it is putting its weight behind.** Only one has actually been funded: Phelan Green Group’s aviation fuel plant at Saldanha Bay, with $100 million of equity committed, construction due to start in early 2027 and first exports in 2029\. The others sit somewhere between early paperwork and finished engineering designs.[**Full story →**](https://www.businessbagel.com/south-africa-first-wave-green-hydrogen-projects/) --- WEATHER ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/97/24/9724ffa3-48e9-48a7-a5f7-e38b7d2c9b36/content/images/2026/09/weather--41-.png) --- BAGEL GAMES ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/97/24/9724ffa3-48e9-48a7-a5f7-e38b7d2c9b36/content/images/2026/09/Wordle--45-.png) Have you got what it takes to win today’s Wordle? [**Play here →**](https://puzzel.org/en/wordle/play?p=-P1jZqG-3Thw7Cneobz1&ref=businessbagel.com) --- THE ANSWER As for the Bagel Bite, the answer is: **A. Canada** Canada is dotted with well over a million lakes, more than all other countries put together by many estimates. Many were carved out by giant glaciers during the last ice age, which scraped hollows into the land that later filled with water. These range from tiny ponds to vast bodies like the Great Lakes shared with the United States. Finland is nicknamed the land of a thousand lakes, but even it has far fewer than Canada. --- That’s your Friday wrap. Enjoyed it? Forward it on, a friend can subscribe in a click. Written by the Business Bagel crew.