portfolio

Retail and commercial banking, insurance and investments

FNB represents FirstRand’s activities in the retail and commercial segments in South Africa and the broader African continent. It is growing its franchise on the back of a compelling customer offering that provides a broad range of innovative financial services products.

FNB’s strategy is to

• grow and retain core transactional accounts;
• provide market-leading digital platforms to deliver cost-effective and innovative transactional propositions to its customers;
• use its deep customer relationships and sophisticated data analytics to effectively cross-sell and up-sell a broad range of financial services products;
• apply disciplined origination strategies;
• provide innovative savings products to grow its retail deposit franchise; and
• right-size its physical infrastructure to achieve efficiencies.

Corporate and investment banking

RMB represents the group’s activities in the corporate and investment banking segments in South Africa, the broader African continent and India. The strategy leverages an entrenched origination franchise, a growing market-making and distribution product offering, and a strong private equity track record to ensure delivery of an integrated corporate and investment banking (CIB) value proposition to corporate and institutional clients. This diversified business portfolio, coupled with a disciplined approach to balancing risk, return and growth, is designed to deliver sustainable earnings, balance sheet resilience and market-leading returns.

Instalment credit and fleet management

WesBank represents the group’s activities in instalment credit, fleet management and related services in the retail, commercial and corporate segments of South Africa. WesBank’s leading position is due to its long-standing alliances with leading motor manufacturers, suppliers and dealer groups, which give WesBank a market-leading point-of-sale presence.

UK specialist bank

Aldermore is a UK specialist lender and savings bank, which has grown significantly on the back of a clear strategy to offer simple financial products and solutions to meet the needs of underserved small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as well as homeowners, professional landlords and savers.

Aldermore focuses on specialist lending across five areas: asset finance, invoice finance, SME commercial mortgages, residential mortgages and buy-to-let mortgages. It is funded primarily by deposits from UK savers. With no branch network, it serves customers and intermediary partners online, by phone and face-to-face through a network of nine regional offices located around the UK.

Aldermore’s commitment to exceptional service, total transparency and its vision to deliver "banking as it should be" has resulted in a differentiated customer proposition.

UK vehicle finance

Part of the Aldermore Group, MotoNovo is one of the UK’s fastest growing independent vehicle finance companies, specialising in funding options such as hire purchase (HP) and personal contract purchase (PCP).

Asset management

The asset management activities of the group are represented by Ashburton Investments, which was launched in 2013 as part of FirstRand’s strategy to access broader financial services profit pools.

Ashburton Investments is able to present investors with opportunities to participate in private equity, renewable energy and credit investments.

Ashburton’s portfolio also consists of a traditional range of equity, fixed income and multi-asset funds. Its long-standing international offshore multi-asset range has recently been strengthened through an investment partnership with Fidelity International. This range is well positioned for South African investors looking to diversify into international markets.

Retail loans and insurance

DirectAxis offers a range of products from personal loans to life and short-term insurance. Through its Pulse platform, DirectAxis also provides a free and secure financial wellness tool that allows customers to check their credit rating and learn how to improve it.

Vehicle-related insurance products

MotoVantage provides value-add financial services solutions related to vehicle ownership. These include maintenance and service plans, warranties, credit life and shortfall cover.

Group-wide functions

Key activities include:

• Treasury and associated risk functions (including capital management, funding, liquidity risk management, non-traded market risk, SWIFT and settlement)
• Group tax services
• Financial and regulatory reporting
• Enterprise and regulatory risk management
• Internal audit