DIGITAL bank Tyme Group announced yesterday it was shaking up its leadership with a new chief executive on the cards as “it embarks on the next chapter of its growth strategy”.
The current CEO, Tauriq Keraan, would be appointed Group Executive: Growth Projects, responsible for leading Tyme’s establishment in new territories as part of the group’s geographic diversification strategy, with Coen Jonker, the co-founder of Tyme and TymeBank, now taking the helm.
Jonker would be appointed TymeBank’s chief executive in South Africa. His key priorities would the recruitment of several new senior hires to support bank’s growth trajectory, further transforming the TymeBank leadership team and leading selected strategic acquisitions, the company said.
TymeBank is a member of the Tyme Group of companies with headquarters in Singapore.
TymeBank chairperson Thabani Jali said: “TymeBank in South Africa has nearly five million customers, and the bank is on course to break even in 2023. We believe the time is right to redeploy key executives into positions that will let the group take advantage of opportunities that are opening up in new territories.
“Tauriq has been instrumental in making TymeBank a South African success story, having assimilated a multitude of unique learnings in the shaping of the bank’s business model through the formative period of its life cycle. He is, therefore, the ideal person to lead Tyme Group’s establishment in new territories and shape the customer experience across the group,” said Jali.
The company said the leadership shake-up follows TymeBank’s rapid growth in South Africa, where the bank was becoming entrenched as the credible alternative to legacy banks since launching in February 2019.
“At the same time, Tyme Group, which has always aspired to be a multi-country business, is strengthening its position as an international digital banking group,” it said.
The group was making major advances in the Philippines with the imminent launch of GOTyme Bank, the digital bank modelled on South Africa’s TymeBank, and had officially submitted its application for a digital banking licence in Pakistan in March 2022.
Tyme Group said a changing regulatory environment was creating opportunities in countries across South and South-East Asia.
Jonker said: “First, a huge thank you to Tauriq for his outstanding leadership - growing our customer base to nearly five million, growing the bank’s net operating income 12-fold through the pandemic, achieving consistently high customer satisfaction levels and successfully positioning TymeBank as a credible alternative to legacy banking in South Africa.”
Keraan said: “This is an exciting time for the group and having personally spent the last 13 years building and scaling digital banking businesses in South Africa, I look forward to playing a more active role in establishing Tyme Group as a leading global digital banking player."
In other leadership changes, David Pfaff, Tyme Group’s current chief financial officer, would take over from Jonker as Tyme Group chief executive. Pfaff would move to Tyme Group’s head office in Singapore to assume responsibility for the group’s international growth strategy.
Pfaff said: “We have started testing our banking platform in the Philippines. The start-up team has been recruited, the leadership team has been assembled, and we are on track to launch GOTyme Bank, our digital bank to the market in the second half of 2022.
“We had previously indicated that Pakistan was under consideration as a third market and if our application for a digital banking licence in that country is successful, we will be operating in a combined market size of about 400 million people,” said Pfaff.
Cheslyn Jacobs, currently responsible for TymeBank’s sales and service function, will be appointed chief commercial officer of TymeBank, accountable for revenue generation.
With the exception of Jacobs’ appointment, which is effective on June 1, the leadership changes come into effect on July 1, with the benefit of a three-month handover from Keraan to his successor, Jonker.
BUSINESS REPORT