While online share trading in South Africa has been dominated by one company for several years, a new bank-backed entrant appears poised to shake things up. A survey by Daily Investor showed that EasyEquities is the most popular local online share trading platform by a significant margin. Out of 2,013 responses gathered from South African retail and institutional investors for Daily Investor’s South African Investor and Banking Report, 44% preferred EasyEquities.
That is more than the combined portion of surveyed investors who preferred to use the platforms of the country’s four major banks — Absa, FNB, Nedbank, and Standard Bank. The chart below shows the results of Daily Investor’s survey on the preferred online sharing trading platforms of South African investors. However, EasyEquities’ decision to make its R25-per-month Thrive subscription mandatory for users without net-positive deposits from November 2023 infuriated some customers. It had swung from a R70.95 million profit in its 2022 financial year to a R35.2 million loss in 2023