BUSINESS NEWS - While I suggested in 2015 that Capitec execs would be reaching for the champagne to celebrate the bank’s impressive growth in primary banking clients, they must surely now have Moët & Chandon on ice versus what might’ve been local sparkling wine back then….
In its 2018 integrated report, Capitec says it now has over 4.5 million primary bank clients, nearly half of its customer base.
Put another way, it has as many primary bank clients today as it had total clients at the start of calendar 2013 (it defines primary banking clients as those “who make regular deposits, mainly salaries”).
In the past 12 months, it said it’s adding an average of 31 000 primary banking customers of the roughly 100 000 accounts it opens per month. Of course, there is churn in the base (with some accountholders switching away) and within the base (with typical loan clients becoming primary bank customers, for example).
Based on numbers disclosed by the bank, it added a net 650 000 primary bank clients out of a total 1.3 million customers in the year to end-February. This means that one out of every two new net customers, was or became a primary bank one.
It contends that it has 27% of the primary banking market in South Africa (for which it uses the employed population as a proxy).
Of the four full-service banks, only Nedbank discloses granular details of its retail client base. At the end of 2017, it had 2.783 million “main banked” customers, out of a total base of 7.538 million. Nedbank says it has 12.7% market share, using a recent market survey by Consulta. (Using this methodology, Capitec has 20% share, meaning the other three banks split the remaining 67% of the market).
The growth in primary clients has been pronounced since it began disclosing the measure in 2012. This disclosure coincided with a specifically-stated strategy in the 2012 integrated report to focus on this segment.
