Digital bank TymeBank has announced that it has onboarded eight-million customers as at October 6, which means one in every five South Africans over the age of 16 now has a TymeBank account.

“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 CEO Coen Jonker said on October 10.

TymeBank’s customer acquisition rate continues to accelerate, with more than 200 000 customers signing up every month and a 70% account activity rate on a rolling 30-day basis. 

“The last million customers were acquired in . . . just under five months, despite ongoing challenges. Our success can also be attributed to our . . . ‘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, The Foschini Group, allows us to optimise our distribution network,” Jonker said. 

According to the bank, growth has been achieved despite ongoing outages at the Department of 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, loadshedding 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 its real-time payment service PayShap in August, as the only bank to allow payments to mobile numbers linked to any bank account for free in South Africa, TymeBank has seen a steady increase in its use.

The bank’s fixed deposit product – launched earlier this year and offering South Africans an 11% savings rate – has also been a success. 

“We continue to see . . . demand for our . . . 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,” TymeBank chief commercial officer Cheslyn Jacobs said.

On the other end of the spectrum, TymeBank continues to gain traction among South African Social Security Agency (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,” Jacobs said.

TymeBank’s acquisition of large-scale small and medium-sized enterprises funder Retail Capital is also reportedly yielding strong results.

The bank now funds more than 50 000 businesses with about R9.5-billion of working capital. Its funding portfolio has grown by 20% since the Retail Capital business was acquired in December last year.

Sister bank GoTyme Bank, in the Philippines, is currently growing at the same pace, with about 200 000 customers a month. Launched in October 2022, GoTyme Bank reached the one-million customer mark in August.