OM Bank will target customers earning between R5,000 and R80,000 per month, says CEO Ian Williamson, who described launching the bank as a “no-brainer” given Old Mutual’s extensive banking activities.
“Our unsecured lending book is sitting at R16 billion. We have about 400,000 active transactional account users in our transactional banking solution, which we do under Bidvest,” Old Mutual CEO, Ian Williamson told Business Times.
Old Mutual also offers a home loan product with SA Home Loans. “We have a lot of the components of banking… We have not brought those things together in one cohesive entity,” he added.
The bank would be highly digital, Williamson said, but also complemented by Old Mutual’s extensive physical infrastructure.
“It’s a digital-first offering, I’d not say it’s a digital exclusive offering but the primary mode of interaction with a customer will be a cleverly and intelligently designed app. Customers will have access to our existing branch footprint for any issues that might arise. We’ll seek to complement the core bank’s capabilities with the rest of the customer touch points in the Old Mutual Group.”
In April, Old Mutual received approval from the Prudential Authority to launch its OM Bank in South Africa. Initially planned for release by the end of this year, the launch has now been postponed to the first quarter of 2025.
“Our South African bank initiative, OM Bank, remains a key priority of our strategy to build an integrated financial services business,” said Iain Williamson, the Group Chief Executive Officer.
Williamson noted that the bank’s technical and operational progress is ahead of schedule, with successful industry testing and integration into the National Payments System already completed.
“Pending the remaining Section 17 regulatory conditions, unrelated to technical readiness, we anticipate the public launch in Q1 2025. For the rest of the year, we are focused on meeting the remaining Section 17 conditions and continue refining systems and capabilities to ensure a seamless launch,” Williamson added.
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