Virgin Money to step up blockchain mobile banking platform
Company expects millions in SA to migrate to the app as many are still unbanked
Virgin Money is eyeing a big slice of SA’s burgeoning mobile financial services market. The company, which is building a blockchain-based mobile banking platform for SA that is akin to Europe’s Revolut, could have a few million users in the country relatively soon, says SA CEO Andre Hugo. A number of companies are wading into the fledgling digital banking market in SA, including Patrice Motsepe-backed TymeBank, Michael Jordaan-backed Bank Zero, and Discovery Bank. They aim to disrupt the market with their lower-cost models. Virgin Money Spot, the group’s peer-to-peer (P2P) payment app which is bank-agnostic, has grown its user base from 15,000 people to more than 400,000 since moving the platform on to the blockchain in October 2018, Hugo said. Blockchain is the decentralised ledger technology that powers cryptocurrencies. When Virgin Money Spot users load money on to the app, that buys them a “digital token” pegged to the rand. They can then instantly send that token to a peer or a...
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