Following its official launch on 26 February 2019, TymeBank succeeded in acquiring one million customers by November 2019 and is now expects to onboard 2 million customers before August this year.
In an African Rainbow Capital (ARC) investment update, the group said that the bank continues to onboard on average 100,000 customers per month, or between 20,000 and 30,000 customers each week.
However, it noted that the country’s coronavirus lockdown has had an impact on sign-ups.
“In March, when government announced and implemented level 5 lockdown, the bank experienced some lower footfall to its kiosks located in Pick n Pay and Boxer stores,” it said.
“Coupled with ambassadors having worked less hours as a precautionary measure, and therefore translating to less assistance to onboard customers and deal with customer queries, it resulted in the bank onboarding approximately 20% fewer customers in April.”
In February, the bank announced its partnership with the Zion Christian Church (ZCC), which would see it offer banking services to some six million adult church members. Following the announcement of the partnership, early success was achieved.
However, the onset of Covid- 19 and the resultant national lockdown has made it impossible to assist churchgoers at Moria, the ZCC’s central place of worship, and elsewhere in the country where church gatherings are held to onboard as TymeBank customers.
The roll-out to ZCC members will proceed as soon as it is reasonably safe to do so, the group said.
New features
TymeBank said that of the current 1.8 million customers who have opened bank accounts, approximately 900,000 are active accounts. The average number of transactions per active customer is consistently increasing.
It added that customer deposits achieved the R1 billion mark in April and the growth in deposits remains strong and ahead of the business plan.
“In terms of the bank’s credit business, and specifically its unsecured lending proposition to customers, which has been piloted but not formally launched, management is exercising significant caution in the context of a challenging economic environment.
“The bank is considering alternative credit products which do not carry the same longer-term risk as an unsecured term loan,” it said.
The bank said it has also concluded one bancassurance partnership and is in advanced negotiations on another possible partnership.
“This will enable the bank to provide a broader suite of products to its customers while obtaining the best in practice capabilities of recognised and well-established insurance partners.
“TymeBank also successfully launched a transactional account for small businesses, largely sole proprietors. This segment is not served well by the incumbents but represents a large component of entrepreneurs in South Africa.”
