ENTRY-LEVEL MARKET
Tymebank eyes 2.1-million customers to break even by 2022
The bank is planning to offer credit cards and unsecured term loans in the near future
TymeBank, which is owned by Patrice Motsepe’s African Rainbow Capital (ARC), is targeting SA’s unbanked population and small businesses as it looks to grow its customer base. The digital bank launched its transactional banking offering two weeks ago and is planning a fully fledged business banking offering for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) later in 2019. TymeBank CEO Sandile Shabalala said the group had made a strategic decision not to target the wealthy segment of the consumer market or big corporate clients. "There’s a big job to be done in the underserved communities at the entry level of banking. We also believe there’s a bigger opportunity in this country to engage SMEs in a much more effective way," he said. TymeBank said its target market is 21-million, of which 17-million are underserved by traditional banks. Competition is intensifying in the entry-level market, with Capitec, whose customer base surpassed 10-million in 2018, announcing price cuts last week. African Ba...
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