TymeBank, one of the world’s fastest growing digital banks has announced that it has onboarded eight million customers as at 6 October 2023, which means one in every five eligible* South Africans now has a TymeBank account.
Commenting on this latest milestone, TymeBank CEO Coen Jonker says: “We are immensely proud of the fact that we have acquired eight million customers since launching in February 2019. 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. This pace of growth also brings us closer to our ambition of becoming one of the top three retail banks in the country.”
TymeBank’s customer acquisition rate has continued to accelerate, with more than 200,000 customers signing up every month and a 70% account activity rate on a rolling 30-day basis.
“What is particularly pleasing is the fact that the last million customers were acquired in record time – just under five months, despite ongoing challenges.
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“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,” says Jonker.
According to the bank, growth has been achieved despite ongoing outages at Home Affairs, which hinders the bank’s ability to securely verify customers’ identities during the onboarding process.
Loadshedding has also had an impact. Although TymeBank kiosks have battery backup, load shedding affects the operation of stores and shopping centres, and intermittent power supply compromises the network operators the bank relies on for moving data.
Since launching PayShap in August as the only bank to allow payments to mobile numbers linked to any bank account for free, TymeBank has seen a steady increase in the usage of this real-time payment service. The bank’s fixed deposit product – launched earlier this year and offering South Africa’s best savings rates (11%) – has also been a huge success.
“We continue to see huge demand for our unique proposition that combines free banking and South Africa’s best savings rates. This has broadened our appeal among more affluent consumers, and we are now approaching R1 billion in balances for our fixed deposit product,” says TymeBank Chief Commercial Officer, Cheslyn Jacobs.
On the other end of the spectrum, TymeBank continues to gain traction among SASSA recipients. “We have put great effort into disbursing SASSA grants to beneficiaries and customer growth in that segment is solid. Our model is an ideal one for grant beneficiaries and more and more of them are choosing us to get their grant payments efficiently,” says Jacobs.
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TymeBank’s acquisition of Retail Capital, the largest SME funder of its kind in the sector, is also yielding good results. The bank now funds over 50,000 businesses with ~R9.5 billion of working capital; its funding portfolio has grown by 20% since the Retail Capital business was acquired in December last year.
Further proving the success of TymeBank’s formula is GoTyme Bank in the Philippines, which is currently growing at the same pace (200,000 customers per month) as its sister bank in South Africa. Launched in October 2022, GoTyme Bank reached the 1-million customer mark in August this year.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry