The library
Learn private lending
Everything the Association publishes about private lending, in the order it makes sense to read it. Each page carries a named author, a publication date, a last-reviewed date and its sources — and each one opens with a plain-English answer, so a single page can be read on its own.
If you read nothing else, read the complete guide and risk and red flags. The first explains the whole subject in sequence; the second is the page most likely to save someone from a bad outcome.
Or take it in order, as a course
Introduction to Private Lending in South Africa — 20 free lessons in four parts, each one teaching on its own in about ten minutes, with the pages below attached as further reading. No sign-up and no schedule. There is a short assessment at the end and a certificate, which records completion rather than conferring a qualification.
Start here
The definition, and the distinction between lending and investing that decides everything after it.
- The complete guide to private lending in South AfricaThe whole subject in sequence, with each part linking to the page that treats it in depth.
- What is private lending?A working definition, the four things the term is used to mean, and the lending-versus-investing distinction.
- The in duplum rule, explainedCharges during default are capped at the principal outstanding when the default began. It caps fees and collection costs too, not just interest.
- What you may charge, and what you may notCurrent caps run from the repo rate plus a margin, in force since May 2016. Interest is only half of it — section 101 closes the list of what you may charge.
- How long before a debt prescribes?An ordinary loan dies after three years; one secured by a registered bond lasts thirty. The difference is paperwork done at origination, not anything about the borrower.
- Understanding the National Credit ActThe Act protects the borrower, not the lender. Being covered by it means duties land on you — registration, affordability checks, capped fees, and a waiting period before you can enforce.
- Do you need to register as a credit provider?Are you the credit provider, or are you funding one? That question comes first, and most people funding private lending are not the provider. Only then does it turn on who is borrowing.
- When taking money from people becomes deposit-takingLending your own money is ordinary lending. Taking other people's money in order to lend it is banking — a criminal offence without registration.
- When arranging a loan becomes licensed adviceLending your own money is not a financial service. Telling other people where to put theirs, as a regular feature of what you do, can be.
- NCR registration, and what it actually requiresAn application, not a formality. Some people are disqualified outright, and the real cost is the continuing compliance that starts once it is granted.
- Is private lending legal in South Africa?Lawful, with conditions. Three laws apply and they ask different questions — registration, whose money you are lending, and whether you advise others.
- Private lending, private credit and private debtOne loan, three seats. The lender calls it private lending, the market calls it private credit, the borrower calls it a loan — and the Association uses the lender's word because it looks after the lender.
- What South Africans get wrong about private lendingSix wrong pictures, each corrected against what is already published. The one that costs the most is confusing the date money is due with the date it arrives.
- Who can be a private lenderNo qualification required and few disqualifications. The real limit is whose money you are lending, and whether you can afford one loan going to zero.
- How a private lender earns a returnFour sources of return, one of which pays reliably. The gap between quoted rate and realised return is idle capital, costs, tax and losses.
- What an accountable institution actually isA status from a list, not an award. Item 11(b) catches lending excluded from the National Credit Act — being outside one puts you inside the other.
How it works
The parties, the paperwork, the pricing, and how capital comes back.
Risk and protection
What security does and does not do, what happens after a default, and the warning signs worth walking away from.
If you are considering it
Eligibility, entity choice, tax, documents, and the checklist to work through before committing capital.
Compared with the alternatives
Measured against the instruments you already understand, including where private lending is the weaker option.
- Alternative investments in South AfricaThe category private lending belongs to, listed honestly alongside the options that beat it. Four things change when you leave the listed market, and the return is not one of them.
- Traditional against alternative investmentsNot a ladder with alternatives at the top. A trade of four properties — price, exit, supervision and recourse — which is sometimes worth making and often not.
- Private lending compared with a fixed depositNine points of comparison, including deposit insurance, liquidity and what the extra yield is compensating you for.
- Local and offshore private lending comparedPricing, term, currency, exchange control and tax — set side by side, with the risks unique to each.
- A private lender and a bank are not the same thingA bank lends deposits under supervision with insurance behind it. A private lender lends its own money with nothing behind it, faster and dearer.
Standards and verification
What the Association checks, what each status means, and what verification never means.
Reference
Glossary of private-lending terms
The vocabulary the sector borrows from banking, property law, tax and exchange control — defined in plain English and in its South African sense.
ReferenceHow we workEditorial policy
How this material is researched, sourced, reviewed and corrected, and how editorial work is kept separate from partner interests.
ReferenceThis page explains how something works. It is not financial, legal or tax advice, it takes no account of your circumstances, and nothing here is a recommendation to lend. Private lending places capital at risk.