Banking on the unbanked.

This article looks at banking in South Africa and the effort to incorporate more South Africans into the country's banking system. According to the FinMark Trust, an independent body promoting broader access to financial services, over half of South Africans over the age of sixteen, close to 16 million people, do not have a bank account. The main reason is the lack of regular income, a common affliction in a country where over 40% of people are unemployed. Without a salary slip, it is difficult to gain access to banking services, and fees are hard to bear. Without much money, many see no point in having an account anyway. And it is little help that banks and automatic teller machines (ATMs) are rare in poor areas. South African banks, however, have signed a charter committing themselves to do their bit to redress the inequalities inherited from apartheid.