Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act, 2003 (Act No. 53 of 2003)

Industry Charters

Financial Services Charter

Code Series FS800: Measurement of the Access to Financial Services Element of Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment

Statement 801: The Measurement of the Access to Financial Services Element of Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment as it relates to members of the Banking Association of South Africa

3. The Definitions, Standards, Target Markets and Key Measurement Principles of Access to Financial Services

3.2 Banking Access via Densification

Purchase

Preamble

Traditionally, physical access to banking products was only measured by means of the number of certain points of access per geographic area. Banking access via the densification principle aims to measure the availability of cash-withdrawal facilities per the number of qualifying customers based on the population density in the agreed measurement area.

Definition

Banking access through densification refers to the principle of measurement of the number of access points per number of the target group of clients with the sole aim of easing access to the facility of obtaining cash from their qualifying accounts within easy reach of their home base (measurement unit / area).

Whereas Geographical Access refers to the number of LSMs 1-5 within a specified radius of a point of representation (the point of representation being the point from which the radius is measured), Densification refers to the number of points within the boundaries of a suburb / measuring unit where at least 50% of the population is classified as being LSM 1-5 (the reference point is the suburb rather than the point of presence).

Target market

The target market will be the LSM 1-5 group of the population of no less than 1 ,500 LSM1-5 individuals within agreed suburbs / measurement unit.

Targets

At least one 'point of presence' per 1 ,500 people in the LSM 1-5 category within a suburb / measuring unit, where 'point of presence' refers to any point of presence within a suburb where a target market beneficiary is able to draw cash. Points of presence measurements excludes the SAPO.

Measurement

The sector will be measured as a whole and not on an individual institution basis based on the agreed principle one point of representation with cash withdrawal facility within the boundaries of the suburb / measurement area per 1, 500 individuals in the LSM 1-5 group, where the representation of the latter exceeds 50% or more of the population within the suburb / measurement area. Suburbs that have a population of less than 1 ,500 LSM 1-5 will be excluded from the calculations.