TymeBank targets 4 million customer base

Tymebank anticipates hitting the 4 million customers mark in the next 12 months if the digital retail bank maintains its growth momentum of onboarding between 100 000 and 120 000 clients a month. Picture: Reuters/Tiisetso Motsoeneng

Tymebank anticipates hitting the 4 million customers mark in the next 12 months if the digital retail bank maintains its growth momentum of onboarding between 100 000 and 120 000 clients a month. Picture: Reuters/Tiisetso Motsoeneng

Published Apr 6, 2021

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DURBAN - TYMEBANK anticipates hitting the 4 million customers mark in the next 12 months if the digital retail bank maintains its growth momentum of onboarding between 100 000 and 120 000 clients a month.

TymeBank, launched in February 2019, reached the 3 million mark in customers at the end of last month despite a challenging environment due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, chief executive Tauriq

Keeran said in an interview that they did not have a specified time frame for reaching the 4 million target.

“Our focus is on ensuring that our customers are experiencing excellent service from us as well as on meeting their broader financial services needs by carefully curating and distributing a selected set of new products.

“But should the bank maintain its growth rate of onboarding just over 100 000 clients per month, we can expect the bank to achieve 3.5 million customers by early September and then the 4 million customer mark in about 12 months from now,” Keeran said.

The bank wants to broaden its offering to include innovative credit and insurance products as well as different value-added services in the future.

A number of companies with an exposure to the insurance industry felt the impact of Covid-19 in their operations recently, with Momentum Metropolitan Holdings reporting a 43 percent decline in earnings for the six months to end December.

Keeran said it was crucial for the bank to enter the lending and insurance markets carefully and responsibly.

“We are entering the lending space with a buy-now-pay-later product. This allows customers to buy selected goods by paying 50 percent upfront, immediately getting the product, then paying 25 percent on day 30 and the final 25 percent on day 60. These loans will be small in size and term and will not cost the customer any interest provided they do not default. This responsible form of borrowing will benefit the consumer significantly, particularly during a difficult time like this. It will also benefit the bank in that it is a capital-efficient form of lending. We also vet customers well upfront by using credit bureau, banking and other alternative forms of data,” he said.

He added that on the insurance side, they would use a data-rich approach to pre-qualify customers for their insurance partners and they remind customers prior to collection date.

The bank announced a partnership with Hollard Insurance last year where it distributed a funeral plan through its kiosks in Pick n Pay stores.

Overall, TymeBank has 700 kiosks in Pick n Pay and Boxer stores across the country.

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