TymeBank has reached 10 million customers – less than six years after launching in 2019, a significant milestone for the bank, and it is also entering Indonesia, said its CEO Karl Westvig.
Westvig took over the reins as CEO of TymeBank, the first digital bank in Africa to reach profitability, yesterday (Oct 1). The bank has almost R7 billion in deposits, which it said makes it the fastest-growing bank in South Africa, based on customer deposits for 2024.
Through a distribution partnership with Pick n Pay, Boxer, and TFG stores, TymeBank has over 1 000 kiosks and 15 000 retail points across the country. Retail Capital, a division of TymeBank, is a largest SME funder.
Earlier this month life assurer and financial services group Sanlam restructured its portfolio in African Rainbow Capital (ARC) to leave it with a 25% stake in ARC Financial Services Holdings — including its interest in Tyme Group. Sanlam has said iwants to leverage Tymebank’s technology to grow the personal loans business. Sanlam’s biggest rival Old Mutual plans to launch its own digital bank early next year,
Westvig said the bank was growing significantly faster than the country’s ‘Big Five’ banks and “this is a testament to our team’s dedication to providing equitable banking that meets the evolving financial needs of South Africans,.”
He said among their achievements since launch was getting to breakeven, “arguably in record time, while serving the poorest in our communities.” Westvig said this was an example of the potential to change what banks worldwide could do, to provide access to customers across the economic spectrum.
The bank has disbursed more than $600 million (R12 billion) to over 80,000 small businesses in South Africa. The acquisition of Retail Capital, a fintech company that funds small and medium-sized businesses in South Africa, was integral to the bank’s SME lending offering.
TymeBank, part of the multi-country Tyme Group, which is currently valued at close to $1bn, said in a statement yesterday its customer-centric approach, technology, and strategic partnerships had driven its success.
Westvig said their immediate priorities included improving the customer service experience and creating a “world-class banking app experience” to attract a more affluent customer segment, while broadening the offering through additional strategic partnerships.
TymeBank had also entered the consumer lending space, supported by innovative funding technology. AI tools to predict a customer’s creditworthiness through monitoring patterns such as grocery spend had been developed. This was a key pillar for the bank’s personal loan proposition, he said.
Tyme Group, with over 14 million customers, also plans to enter Indonesia, the largest economy in Southeast Asia, this month. Tyme would launch its merchant cash advance solution for small owner-managed businesses in Indonesia, following a partnership agreement with a fintech lending licence holder in that country. This comes after the successful launch of GoTyme Bank in the Philippines in October 2022, and its entry into Vietnam earlier this year.
TymeBank’s innovations include the ability to open a bank account with no monthly fees in under five minutes. TymeBank was also the first bank in this country to move into the buy now, pay later space with the launch of MoreTyme in 2021.
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