South Africa's Absa bank aims to lift lagging return on equity by 2021

A woman walks past a branch of Barclay's South African subsidiary Absa bank in Cape Town. [Photo: Reuters]

JOHANNESBURG- South African lender Absa Group set out new targets to raise its return on equity (RoE) by around 4 percent by 2021, from levels currently among the lowest of South Africa’s big four banks.

In a statement, the bank said on Friday it hoped to grow its RoE to between 18 percent and 20 percent by 2021, from 16.4 percent in 2017 - above the 15.3 percent reported by peer Nedbank.