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Cybercrime

Criminals are moving online: the latest in a string of cybercrime attacks on South African institutions have been against the Department of Justice and African Bank, and this week it came to light that consumer and personal information of more than 1.4 million South Africans is suspected to have been illegally accessed from the servers of debt recovery firm Debt-in Consultants in April this year. The breach became apparent when it was discovered that confidential consumer data and voice recordings of calls between Debt-in debt recovery agents and financial services customers had been posted on hidden internet sites that are only accessible by a specialised web browser.

Inflation

After moderating to 4.6% year-on-year in July (from 4.9% in June), Consumer Price Index inflation rose to 4.9% year-on-year in August, in line with expectations. FNB Economist Koketso Mano says major contributors to the uptick in the inflation rate were transport (transport, excluding fuel, increased 0.7% month-on-month and 5.2% year-on-year) and alcoholic beverages and tobacco (0.6% and 5.0%). After slowing to 15.2% y/y in July, fuel inflation accelerated to 19.6% year-onyear and 4.9% month-on-month. Electricity increased by 0.3% month-on-month to post 13.9% for the year to the end of August. Food and non-alcoholic beverage inflation increased to 6.9% year-on-year, from 6.7%.

Financial Services

Sanlam announced this week that it has reached agreement for the sale of its UK private investments and wealth planning businesses to funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management for 140 million pounds (about R2.8 billion), subject to regulatory approvals. This transaction is the final step in the execution of Sanlam’s strategy to simplify its UK operations and reallocate capital to Africa and other selected emerging markets. The transaction is expected to be finalised in the first quarter of 2022. Last week Sanlam announced the sale of its UK life and pensions business to Chesnara Plc, and in August completed the sale of its UK platform business, Nucleus Financial Group.