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Johannesburg - Banking group Standard Bank (SBK) has refuted the findings of Capgemini's survey on bank charges, which claims
that South Africans pay more than double the international average on a current account.
Capgemini is an international company that specialises in consulting, technology, outsourcing and local professional services.
Standard Bank says that its customers pay almost half of the amount quoted in the report. It claims that the survey has fallen short in a number of areas and that international comparisons of bank fees are "unreliable as direct comparisons are difficult to make".
"The report falls short in failing to take account of the true costs of banking services, and the report overstates the true costs at which Standard Bank customers can obtain banking services," said Standard Bank's chief executive: Personal and Business Banking, Sim Tshabalala.
He added that the vast majority of their current account customers use fixed monthly fee options. Classic current account customers typically pay R85 a month or €107 a year - 45% below the €196 claimed by Capgemini.
It said that about 80% of its customers are E Plan customers, which are the bank's equivalent to the transactor customers as described in the Capgemini report.
"The E Plan account has all the functionality of a current account, with the exception of cheque and overdraft facilities. A typical Standard Bank E Plan customer pays €52 a year, a quarter of the €196 claimed by Capgemini," said Tshabalala.
He said that during the compilation of the report, the Bank had raised numerous concerns with Capgemini's local researchers, but that those concerns weren't taken into account in the final report.
"Over the past five years the real cost of transaction banking services for Standard Bank customers has fallen by 16%. For Standard Bank's more than 3.5 million E Plan customers, the real cost of banking over that period has fallen by 18%," Tshabalala concluded.