Absa’s digital push comes with a $540 million price tag

Absa, one of South Africa’s biggest banking groups, is moving more customers onto digital banking, but its latest results reveal a contradiction at the heart of its technology strategy: adoption is rising, while the cost of running the business is not falling.

Digitally active customers grew 14%, but the cost-to-income ratio edged up as technology costs hit R8.78 billion ($538.7 million),…