Developments in bank funding costs in South Africa

This paper provides an assessment of developments in South African bank funding costs since the global financial crisis. We construct aggregate bank funding cost proxies by weighting the average cost of different forms of bank funding in South Africa and compare these to a summary measure of actual bank funding costs based on a one-off survey of major banks. We show that, in contrast to the behaviour of advanced economy banks, South African banks have not significantly adjusted their funding composition since the global financial crisis. We show that bank funding costs have increased over recent years, in line with higher money market liquidity premia, a higher policy rate and higher market interest rates. A one-off survey of the six largest banks suggests that our average funding cost proxy is within a plausible range of actual bank funding costs and follows a similar profile over time.