Cross-border claims / ZAF

South Africa

The banks located here, whoever owns them, held $63.56B of cross-border claims outstanding in Q4 2025: 0.14% of the world total that quarter, the 39th largest of the reporting systems active in it. Its series in the BIS locational statistics runs from Q3 2009 to Q4 2025.

$63.56B

Claims outstanding

Q4 2025, 39th largest

−2.5%

Against its own peak

peak $65.18B, Q4 2020

No comparison

Change since Q1 2008

first reported Q3 2009

Counterparty countries

97.7% of its book is named

Claims outstanding, Q3 2009–Q4 2025

Total cross-border claims of the banks located here, USD billions, quarterly. Nominal dollars: movements mix changes in positions with changes in the dollar value of non-dollar books, and this BIS cut carries no adjusted-change series to separate them.

Hover for daily values

Source: BIS Locational Banking Statistics (WS_LBS_D_PUB), BIS Data Portal (data.bis.org). Selection: cross-border claims (measure C, amounts outstanding), reporting country ZAF vs all counterparties (5J), quarterly, 2009-Q3 to 2025-Q4. License:free with “Source: BIS” attribution. Methodology

Who these banks lend to

Every counterparty country BIS publishes for this system in Q4 2025: 77 of them, $62.11B in total, which is 97.7% of its published all-countries total. The five largest counterparties are 62% of the named book. 40 of the 77 borrowers are themselves reporting systems in this dataset and link through to their own book; the other 37 appear here only as borrowers.

#	Counterparty	Claims	Share of named book	Q1 2008	Change
1	GBR United Kingdom	$22.94B	36.9%	n/a	n/a
2	USA United States	$4.88B	7.9%	n/a	n/a
3	FRA France	$4.08B	6.6%	n/a	n/a
4	NGA Nigeria	$3.43B	5.5%	n/a	n/a
5	MUS Mauritius	$3.13B	5.0%	n/a	n/a
6	EGY Egypt	$2.19B	3.5%	n/a	n/a
7	IMN Isle of Man	$2.08B	3.3%	n/a	n/a
8	DEU Germany	$1.50B	2.4%	n/a	n/a
9	NLD Netherlands	$1.22B	2.0%	n/a	n/a
10	UGA Uganda	$1.20B	1.9%	n/a	n/a
11	KEN Kenya	$1.10B	1.8%	n/a	n/a
12	AGO Angola	$958M	1.5%	n/a	n/a
13	GHA Ghana	$898M	1.4%	n/a	n/a
14	CIV Côte d'Ivoire	$874M	1.4%	n/a	n/a
15	LUX Luxembourg	$871M	1.4%	n/a	n/a
16	NAM Namibia	$858M	1.4%	n/a	n/a
17	ESP Spain	$788M	1.3%	n/a	n/a
18	CYM Cayman Islands	$629M	1.0%	n/a	n/a
19	CAN Canada	$621M	1.0%	n/a	n/a
20	GGY Guernsey	$578M	0.9%	n/a	n/a
21	IRL Ireland	$507M	0.8%	n/a	n/a
22	ZMB Zambia	$471M	0.8%	n/a	n/a
23	CHE Switzerland	$422M	0.7%	n/a	n/a
24	AUS Australia	$420M	0.7%	n/a	n/a
25	COG Republic of Congo	$407M	0.7%	n/a	n/a
26	KOR Korea	$399M	0.6%	n/a	n/a
27	TZA Tanzania	$343M	0.6%	n/a	n/a
28	BRA Brazil	$343M	0.6%	n/a	n/a
29	ARE United Arab Emirates	$316M	0.5%	n/a	n/a
30	BEL Belgium	$302M	0.5%	n/a	n/a
31	TUR Türkiye	$272M	0.4%	n/a	n/a
32	SWZ Eswatini	$272M	0.4%	n/a	n/a
33	MOZ Mozambique	$246M	0.4%	n/a	n/a
34	SGP Singapore	$224M	0.4%	n/a	n/a
35	COD Democratic Republic of the Congo	$211M	0.3%	n/a	n/a
36	ZWE Zimbabwe	$192M	0.3%	n/a	n/a
37	IND India	$188M	0.3%	n/a	n/a
38	CHN China	$188M	0.3%	n/a	n/a
39	ETH Ethiopia	$175M	0.3%	n/a	n/a
40	HKG Hong Kong SAR	$156M	0.3%	n/a	n/a
41	JPN Japan	$139M	0.2%	n/a	n/a
42	JEY Jersey	$114M	0.2%	n/a	n/a
43	NOR Norway	$103M	0.2%	n/a	n/a
44	QAT Qatar	$102M	0.2%	n/a	n/a
45	ITA Italy	$96M	0.2%	n/a	n/a
46	CYP Cyprus	$87M	0.1%	n/a	n/a
47	BWA Botswana	$84M	0.1%	n/a	n/a
48	POL Poland	$67M	0.1%	n/a	n/a
49	MLT Malta	$57M	0.1%	n/a	n/a
50	MWI Malawi	$55M	0.1%	n/a	n/a
51	BHS The Bahamas	$45M	0.1%	n/a	n/a
52	SEN Senegal	$41M	0.1%	n/a	n/a
53	LSO Lesotho	$40M	0.1%	n/a	n/a
54	MEX Mexico	$37M	0.1%	n/a	n/a
55	RWA Rwanda	$25M	0.0%	n/a	n/a
56	AUT Austria	$18M	0.0%	n/a	n/a
57	PRT Portugal	$15M	0.0%	n/a	n/a
58	PAN Panama	$13M	0.0%	n/a	n/a
59	NZL New Zealand	$11M	0.0%	n/a	n/a
60	TWN Chinese Taipei	$10M	0.0%	n/a	n/a
61	SWE Sweden	$9M	0.0%	n/a	n/a
62	THA Thailand	$9M	0.0%	n/a	n/a
63	BFA Burkina Faso	$8M	0.0%	n/a	n/a
64	SAU Saudi Arabia	$6M	0.0%	n/a	n/a
65	TGO Togo	$6M	0.0%	n/a	n/a
66	LAO Laos	$4M	0.0%	n/a	n/a
67	BRB Barbados	$4M	0.0%	n/a	n/a
68	DNK Denmark	$3M	0.0%	n/a	n/a
69	ISR Israel	$3M	0.0%	n/a	n/a
70	BMU Bermuda	$3M	0.0%	n/a	n/a
71	KWT Kuwait	$3M	0.0%	n/a	n/a
72	CMR Cameroon	$3M	0.0%	n/a	n/a
73	GRC Greece	$2M	0.0%	n/a	n/a
74	MAR Morocco	$2M	0.0%	n/a	n/a
75	FIN Finland	$1M	0.0%	n/a	n/a
76	BHR Bahrain	$1M	0.0%	n/a	n/a
77	PAK Pakistan	$1M	0.0%	n/a	n/a

Source: BIS Locational Banking Statistics (WS_LBS_D_PUB), BIS Data Portal (data.bis.org). Selection: cross-border claims (measure C), reporting country ZAF vs each individual counterparty country, 2025-Q4, with the same cell at 2008-Q1 where it exists. License:free with “Source: BIS” attribution. Shares are of the sum of this reporter's named counterparty cells, not of its published total, because the two differ. Change is in the nominal USD stock and is not a flow. n/a means the cell does not exist at the earlier date, which is not the same as zero. Methodology

These are residence figures, so this page covers every bank booking here, foreign-owned subsidiaries and branches included, and excludes the foreign books of banks headquartered here but booking abroad. For the other side of the ledger, how much the world’s banks lend to this economy, see its counterparty page. The methodology gives the exact BIS selection behind every figure here.