Francois Viviers, Capitec group executive of marketing and communications.
Capitec Bank has seen rapid growth in mobile banking adoption, with more than half of its 25 million clients now actively using the Capitec app every month.
Speaking in an interview with ITWeb on the side-lines of the Capitec Innovation Exchange event yesterday, Francois Viviers, Capitec group executive of marketing and communications, said the app’s ease of use, coupled with customers’ increasing digital literacy, has seen over 14.5 million clients logging onto the app in the past month alone.
The majority of customers use the app for a variety of functions, with the most common being airtime and data purchases, credit applications and electricity purchases.
The bank’s push for a seamless self on-boarding service has also played a major role in this acceleration. In October alone, Capitec clients opened a total of 155 000 new bank accounts, with 20% created through the mobile app.
“Every month, we see between 15 000 and 20 000 people join Capitec directly through in-app on-boarding,” noted Viviers.
“Some customers start the process on the app, and then visit a branch to collect their physical card. Our intelligent and user-friendly on-boarding process is driving this digital shift. Capitec introduced full digital account creation in 2024, allowing users to open an account, activate a virtual card and even order a physical bank card online within minutes.”
According to Viviers, the bank uses an intelligent, data-driven verification system, including biometric checks that integrate with the Department of Home Affairs database, to streamline the on-boarding process. This ensures digital identity verification for new clients, while granting them immediate access to transacting tools.
Many local banks are increasingly adopting a platform strategy within their mobile apps, moving beyond offering their own core financial products to become an online marketplace.
Viviers points out that while Capitec is exploring new app features, the bank has no plans to introduce a marketplace strategy, as its guiding principle remains focused on providing core financial services.
“To be a good bank, we need a simple, intuitive and transparent app. While adding a host of additional features may be valuable to some clients, this should never get in the way of people doing their core banking. Our emphasis is on ensuring the Capitec app integrates into platforms which customers already use; for instance, integration with services such as Booking.com, Uber and Bolt, through providing secure payments and identity verification.”
The in-app calling feature, via Amazon Connect, has seen the bank reduce its in-call handling times by 30%, with clients having already saved R5 million in airtime – ensuring secure help is available even without airtime or data, he adds.
Live demonstrations at the event included Capitec’s artificial intelligence (AI)-integrated fraud detection system that can block mule accounts, biometric security features, in-branch technologies, and the zero-fraud performance of Capitec Pay.
Capitec CIO Wim de Bruyn highlighted the increasing complexity of digital crime, noting that SA lost R2.7 billion to financial crime in 2024.
“It’s a daily battle, and we are fighting it with industrial-scale technology. Capitec’s AI-driven security ecosystem has already prevented over R300 million in client fraud this year, blocked 80 000 mule accounts, and stopped 200 000 scammer payments,” he noted.
There has also been an increase in the use of Feature Lock, an in-app service that prevents fraud if a phone is compromised or stolen – by locking features that clients use.
Nick Harris, head of financial crime, credited Capitec’s team of 2 000 engineers for driving this security strategy. Their advanced fraud-detection models, cloud-based client-verification tools, and behavioural analytics have collectively prevented hundreds of millions in financial losses, he noted.
“One of our first cloud-based implementations in 2023 was a feature that tells clients whether they are really speaking to a Capitec agent. Clients have shared remarkable stories about how those alerts stopped a scam in its tracks.”
