South Africa has a sophisticated banking system - but it’s expensive, complicated and often intimidating. This, coupled with significant barriers to entry, onerous sign-up processes and a generally negative customer experience, has resulted in a detrimental lack of financial inclusion and eroded trust in financial services institutions.
TYME TO DISRUPT BANKING
For socio-economic growth to take place at scale, we need as many people as possible to be included in the financial system - because the more people who get included, the more we, as a country, get empowered.
The people of South Africa have amazing potential. However, unlocking this potential requires a bank to believe in and work with you.
TymeBank set out to disrupt the status quo with accessible products and services and affordable rates; but beyond that, it was set up with the purpose of empowering South Africans and a desire to improve lives.
SAINC went to meet a bunch of TymeBank stakeholders - from the remarkably passionate executives living out their professional purpose, to the individual and business customers who find in TymeBank a service provider that understands and delivers on their needs.
From remote IT technicians who hardly have time to eat, never mind bank, to vibrant business owners handling cash on a day-to-day basis, TymeBank is growing its customer base at a rapid pace.
Building on the understanding that no one wakes up in the morning wanting to go into a bank branch, TymeBank has delivered to South Africa a unique and pioneering hybrid banking experience. With a mobile app that allows you to transact at all levels, TymeBank has embedded its live customer experience into the retail environment that its customers access every day.
With independent ratings as the most affordable bank account in the country and the savings account with the highest interest rate - as well as being one of the easiest and most accessible account opening processes world over - it’s no wonder this newcomer to the market has more than 5 million customers and growing.
Banking should be for everyone. And with the world in its current process of rapid transformation, TymeBank CEO and co-founder, Coenraad Jonker, believes it’s the job of his bank to drive this much needed change in South Africa, enabling customers to engage as economic agents and give people power in their own lives.
STORIES
Lutha Ndlwana loves fashion. She started her business, Lutha Couture as a side hustle to help her save more and buy a house. She sources and sells women’s clothing, accessories and cosmetics; and this means she deals in a lot of cash sales. She chose to bank with TymeBank because of the low cash handling fees and the ease of opening an account, proudly branded with her business name. The interest on flexible savings was also a huge plus, making TymeBank her convenient partner in wealth creation.
Simanga Nkosi is a busy guy. As an ICT engineer for one of southern Africa’s leading healthcare providers, his time is in short supply. Fielding more than 500 calls in any given day, convenience is of utmost importance to him - and when it comes to any personal admin activities, quick and easy is the name of the game. Nkosi found himself at Pick n’ Pay for a grocery shop. There he noticed the mobile TymeBank kiosk promising him that he could open an account in less than five minutes - so he decided to give it a go. And just like millions of others, by inputting his ID number and some personal details, his account was opened and out popped a card with his name printed on it.
Coenraad Jonker is a CEO like few others. The successful growth of TymeBank under his leadership is no great surprise either. Rarely do you feel the passion of an executive for the impact they make in the lives of ordinary people, or the purposeful determination that so clearly drives every strategic business decision. Jonker’s mission was to transform the banking experience of regular South Africans to a positive one - providing a disruptive, easy to use hybrid model that puts the power into the hands of the people and is set to help South Africa achieve its long-term socio-economic goals.
View all the stories here.