Cape Town - A roundup of Wednesday's top economic and finance reads on Fin24.
SARB's Kuben Naidoo clears Capitec confusion: There is no new probe
SA Reserve Bank deputy governor and registrar of banks Kuben Naidoo on Wednesday said that he was not aware of any new probes into Capitec Bank.
This after Bloomberg on Tuesday reported that the SA Reserve Bank had written to the NCR to request a probe into loan-origination fees charged by the bank, citing a person familiar with the matter. Fin24 could not independently confirm the investigation.
The news caused Capitec's share price to decrease by as much as 5% on Tuesday.
Guard your savings: Avoid scams promising to make you richer than Jeff Bezos
In late May, the country’s priority crime investigation unit, the Hawks, announced it was investigating what may be one of the country’s largest-ever investment fraud schemes, an investment platform known as BTC Global.
According to the South African Banking Risk Information Centre, one of the major signs of a potential investment fraud is the promise of guaranteed high returns. The returns promised by BTC Global were financially and economically impossible.
Two officials on paid suspension cost department over R2m, Jeff Radebe says
Energy Minister Jeff Radebe has told Parliament that over the past year, two senior management service officials in his department have been on nearly a year of paid suspension each, at a combined cost of R2.6m.
Government departments and entities have experienced well-documented difficulties in preventing senior officials from doing business with the state. Public Service Regulations seek to curb this practice.
A tenth of Alexkor's expenditure went to directors - Gordhan
Nearly 10% of state-run diamond miner Alexkor's R225m expenditure between April 2012 and March 2017 went towards paying directors, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan has told Parliament.
During his budget vote in May, Gordhan said forensic investigators would look into allegations of wrongdoing at Alexkor related to its contracts, the transparency of its sales and its marketing of diamonds.
• READ: A tenth of Alexkor's expenditure went to directors - Gordhan
Amazon takes a leaf from Toys ‘R’ Us book with new holiday catalogue
Amazon.com is looking more and more like a traditional retailer.
In a drive to win the business up for grabs after the demise of Toys ‘R’ Us, the online giant is going conventional with plans to publish a holiday toy catalogue, according to people with knowledge of the strategy.