Kooyman shares his glowing outlook for banking sector

Many books and documentaries have shed light on the subprime mortgage crisis in the US and the banking sector's irresponsible—if not criminal—lending practices.

- Adriaan Kruger

The sentiment that banks were the bad guys remains strong. Investors ignore the fact that they all supported the huge returns the banks delivered until the day before the crash.

Asset managers quickly reverted to big technology stocks, seemingly forgetting the tech sector had its own crisis that cost it dearly a few years earlier.

It is noticeable that the banking sector has been coming back quietly while concerns over the valuations of technology giants have been increasing lately.

Kokkie Kooyman, executive director of Denker Capital and head of the asset manager's global financials team, says the financial index has performed well since the Covid lows of 2020, but the performance has been uneven.

He points to resilience of the return on equity (ROE) across the sector, highlighting that banks delivered shareholder value growth of nearly 12% per annum, based on a combination of ROE driving net asset value per share and dividend payments.