Capitec is adding 120,000 new customers each month

Capitec Bank is continuing to punt its retail success story, revealing that it is adding over 120,000 new banking clients each month.

The banking group, which started out as a low-cost financial supplier to low-income groups, has shown startling growth over the past few years, growing to be the third largest retail bank in the country, in terms of banking clients.

The bank chalks up its successes to a simplified and affordable product offering, which chooses set fees and a single account over the often complex calculations and bundled products offered by competing groups.

A recent SAcsi report found that Capitec led the rest of South Africa’s big retail banks in terms of customer satisfaction, retaining its top spot from the 2016 report.

2017 data from research firm Nielsen also showed that Capitec has extended its lead over other South African banks in popularity, with as many as 29% of respondents to the annual Nielson banking survey indicating that they used Capitec as their primary banking account.

In reporting its interim results ended August 2016, Capitec revealed that it had added 1.2 million customers over a 12 month period, taking it to 7.9 million banking clients – above both Nedbank and FNB.

More recently, however, the bank said that it was adding more than 120,000 new customer accounts each month, which would put the bank closer to 8.4 million customers at the end of 2016 (a potential 400,000 client addition since September).

This is how South African banking customers stood at the end of the last reporting period (to June 2016).