Capitec Bank’s days of regarding itself as SA’s most prominent digital bank appear to be numbered.

Capitec seems to have reached its peak and other banks are catching up. This does not mean the queues at Capitec banks are a thing of the past.

Earlier this year, Capitec informed investors that retail clients using digital channels climbed by 28% to 8.6-million for the year ended February 28 2021. Capitec said it was the biggest digital bank in SA with active users of its app, USSD channel, or a combination of digital channels.

“We embraced innovation and digitalisation, and so did our clients, and the permanent benefits and cost savings are expected to flow in the coming years,” Gerrie Fourie, CEO of Capitec, explained at the time.

“Clients are now more than ever before motivated to use digital channels such as our new banking app as they are set to benefit from the lower transaction fees and zero-rated data charges.”

But a new challenger, TymeBank, is quietly positioning itself as the next big mass-market digital bank for SA.

The bank is 100% digital. It uses apps and online platforms to support its customers, rather than traditional physical branches. TymeBank is already making strides and has a real possibility of becoming SA’s biggest digital bank in a few months.

The Covid-19 pandemic may have thrown TymeBank’s plans off course. In February 2020, TymeBank — owned by billionaire Patrice Motsepe through JSE-listed African Rainbow Capital — announced a partnership with SA’s largest religious affiliation, the Zionist Christian Church (ZCC). There are about 12-million ZCC members.

The innovative partnership will see TymeBank become the financial services partner of choice for ZCC church members. If the plan goes ahead, the TymeBank bank card will double as a membership card for ZCC members.

The product will be supported using ZCM (Zion City Moria) branded portable kiosks staffed by the church’s in-house mobile digital services company, Zetnet. The development would propel TymeBank to the front of the race to be SA’s biggest digital bank.

As more South Africans get vaccinated, the better the chances that churches will resume normal services and gather huge numbers of the faithful. When that happens, TymeBank (Take Your Money Everywhere) will be available at ZCC churches.

Last week, TymeBank stated it had successfully onboarded 3.45-million customers in just over two years since launching.