Big changes for TymeBank and one of South Africa’s biggest retailers
South African digital bank TymeBank has partnered with The Foschini Group (TFG) to offer customers three new financial products for shopping and banking.
Through installing over 600 kiosks across TFG stores, including Foschini, Markham and Sportsscene, customers can now open a TymeBank TFG Money account in less than 5 minutes with no monthly fees or paperwork, said the group.
TymeBank noted that the rollout of kiosks in South Africa would rival traditional distribution networks of other big banks in the country.
TFG is the largest retail clothing group in South Africa, with over 30 brands and roughly 28 million loyalty members. Coen Jonker, the CEO of TymeBank said that the new partnership between the bank and retailer is unique, opening both companies to the opportunity to expand and diversify their customer profile.
From TymeBank’s perspective, the new partnership could potentially expose it to over 28 million TFG loyalty programme members, said Jonker.
The CEO added that TFG offers TymeBank a large amount of data which can be used for risk management as well as for the benefit of customers.
Since its launch in 2019, TymeBank has acquired 6.1 million customers marking it as one of the fastest-growing digital banks in South Africa.
The bank currently processes an average of 23 million monthly transactions while picking up around 188,000 unique new customers that same month.
The kiosks will also allow TFG customers and TymeBank users to settle electricity payments, transfer money or engage with savings products.
The partnership between the two companies brings with it a new ‘Buy Now Pay Later’ solution called MoreTyme; the product aims to offer more purchasing power to South Africans while encouraging financial inclusion.
According to the companies, MoreTyme is a three-month instalment payments scheme that is interest-free and has no fees over the three months.
A TymeBank TFG Money Bank Account and Debit Card and a new personal loan program titled TymeBank TFG Money Personal Loan has also been introduced. The personal loan service, according to TymeBank and TFG is currently in a ‘soft launch’ with a loan limit not yet finalised.
The new purple bank account card is linked to TFG reward systems offered at over 20 retail stores.
The integration of the two companies has already seen an increase in the basket size of its customers at TFG stores, said Scott Brown, the managing director of value-added services at TFG.
This move by TymeBank falls in line with its diversified strategy of partnering with retailers and their reward programmes, specifically its lifestyle banking campaign:
Kiosks, as shown below, will be placed in stores across the country:
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