Capitec's almost singular focus on the South African market and its simple business model are still paying off, with the bank outperforming its more geographically diverse rivals. And the group is not yet experiencing a slowdown in that growth, either in terms of client numbers, now at 10.5-million, or in terms of transactional volumes, which increased 25% for the six months up to the end of August, said Capitec CEO Gerrie Fourie this week. There was still "plenty of room" for the group to grow locally, he said, and its focus remained in SA. Capitec has a simple lending, deposit and transactional-fee business model. But the group is now making a push for business banking with a bid for Mercantile Bank, and has launched insurance products. Fourie said Capitec had done a full due diligence investigation of the state-owned Portuguese bank's business in SA and, if the bid was successful, Capitec would spend the first year to 18 months aligning the bank with its strategy. "We have looked...
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