SA’s digital bank TymeBank has been rated second best in the country on the Forbes list of the world’s best banks.
The Forbes list includes banks from 24 countries, and more than 40 000 customers were surveyed across the world for their opinions on their current and former relationships with banks.
Five South African banks are featured on the list. Capitec is rated first, while other banks in the top five in the country include FNB (third), Nedbank (fourth) and Bidvest anchors the list.
For the second year running, Forbes partnered with market research firm Statista to produce its list. Statista surveyed customers around the globe on their customer experience and the best banks from 23 countries were then compiled into a final list.
The banks were rated on general customer satisfaction and key qualities like trust, banking fees, digital services and financial advice.
TymeBank has welcomed the recognition, with CEO Tauriq Keraan saying he is humbled and noting that “to be recognised by such a credible international business authority, a mere 18 months after we launched TymeBank to the public, further reinforces that what we’re doing is having the right impact on customers”.
He adds: “It is especially encouraging that the foundations upon which TymeBank was created were the very attributes esteemed by the survey and subsequent list. One of these core values is how to make banking services more accessible to ordinary South Africans. This has meant that at TymeBank, we have honest conversations about making banking affordable in the South African context of high banking fees in general.”
Keraan says TymeBank’s innovative business model, technology and data stack have enabled it to offer South Africans much lower banking fees, “market-leading savings rates, financial education, improved physical access for deposits and withdrawals, and a differentiated digital experience that includes a world-class customer on-boarding process.
“Our customer-centric mindset, rooted in our purpose of financial inclusion through the use of technology, has also allowed us to observe customer behaviour in real-time and, in so doing, quickly and consistently improve our service to customers.”
TymeBank has seen a rapid rise in customers since its official launch last year and now counts 1.8 million citizens as its clients.
Approximately 900 000 are active accounts and the bank says the average number of transactions per active customer is consistently increasing.
The recognition by Forbes comes on the back of Patrice Motsepe-controlled African Rainbow Capital (ARC) Investments announcing that TymeBank continues to on-board on average 100 000 customers per month, or between 20 000 and 30 000 customers each week.
TymeBank reached the R1 billion mark in customer deposits as of April and it says the growth in deposits remains strong and ahead of the business plan.
In February, the bank announced its partnership with the Zion Christian Church (ZCC), which would see it offer banking services to some six million adult church members.
Last week, ARC notified the market that following the announcement of the ZCC partnership, early success was achieved.
It, however, cautioned that the onset of COVID-19 and the resultant national lockdown has made it impossible to assist churchgoers at Moria, the ZCC’s central place of worship, and elsewhere where church gatherings are held to on-board TymeBank customers.
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