TymeBank, owned by South African billionaire Patrice Motsepe, has started signing up customers for its new online bank, one of a number of entrants planning to steal clients away from traditional lenders.
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Bank Zero will be an app-driven bank, not an Internet bank, a digital bank or a virtual bank, and will not rely on physical branch infrastructure, according to chairman Michael Jordaan.
Former First National Bank CEO Michael Jordaan’s new financial services venture, the app-driven Bank Zero, has been integrated with the national payments system and will now begin trial runs ahead of commercial launch.
Standard Bank has finally confirmed one of the telecommunications industry’s worst-kept secrets: it will launch a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), becoming the second major bank in South Africa to do so.
South Africa will strive to allow competition into its banking system in a way that won’t threaten the stability of the industry as more and more entrants seek to rival the nation’s biggest lenders.
South African banks are reporting phenomenal growth in the use of banking apps despite the country’s finite banked population, stagnant levels of smartphone penetration and relatively low levels of financial literacy.