African Bank Investments Limited (Abil) said yesterday that Standard Bank would terminate the joint venture the lenders set up in 2000 to boost access to financing for the mass market.
Under the partnership, Standard Bank sold Abil loan products to its clients, while Abil underwrote and collected the loans.
The financial services companies were unable to strike a balance "between Standard Bank's desire to develop a competence in mass market lending and African Bank's view that the partnership would need to be expanded for it to warrant sustained focus", Abil said yesterday.
The venture, which will end at the end of June 2007, had a R750 million loan book at the end of March. - Bloomberg, Johannesburg