TymeBank, the digital bank in which Patrice Motsepe’s African Rainbow Capital is majority shareholder, said it “onboarded” its eight millionth client last week.

This, it said, means that one in every five “eligible” South Africans now has a TymeBank account. This comes just four-and-a-half years after TymeBank’s February 2019 launch.

“Our performance reinforces our position as one of the world’s fastest-growing digital banks and a credible alternative to the legacy banks for South Africans,” said CEO Coen Jonker in a statement.

“This pace of growth also brings us closer to our ambition of becoming one of the top three retail banks in the country.”

Jonker said TymeBank’s customer acquisition rate is accelerating, with more than 200 000 customers signing up every month.

“What is particularly pleasing is the fact that the last million customers were acquired in record time – just under five months, despite ongoing challenges,” he said.

“Our success can also be attributed to our tried-and-tested ‘phygital’ model, which seamlessly integrates the convenience of digital banking into physical retail ecosystems, while the strength of our partnerships with leading retailers such as Pick n Pay, Boxer and more recently TFG, allows us to optimise our distribution network.”

Growth

According to the bank, growth has been achieved despite ongoing system outages at home affairs, which hinder the bank’s ability to verify customers’ identities during the onboarding process.

Load shedding has also had an impact. Although TymeBank kiosks have battery backup, power cuts affect the operation of stores and shopping centres, and intermittent power supply compromises the network operators the bank relies on for moving data.

One of the reasons TymeBank has grown so quickly recently is its focus on social grants recipients. “We have put great effort into disbursing Sassa grants to beneficiaries and customer growth in that segment is solid,” said Jonker.

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The digital bank said it is also seeing more affluent customers sign up for its financial services proposition due to free banking and good interest rates on savings accounts.