{"id":301866,"date":"2019-02-26T13:59:16","date_gmt":"2019-02-26T11:59:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=301866"},"modified":"2019-02-26T13:59:59","modified_gmt":"2019-02-26T11:59:59","slug":"how-to-build-a-digital-bank-in-south-africa-it-starts-with-a-team-of-180-it-professionals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/banking\/301866\/how-to-build-a-digital-bank-in-south-africa-it-starts-with-a-team-of-180-it-professionals\/","title":{"rendered":"How to build a digital bank in South Africa: it starts with a team of 180 IT professionals"},"content":{"rendered":"

TymeBank has officially opened its digital doors to the public, following a soft-launch at the back end of 2018.<\/p>\n

South Africa\u2019s first fully digital bank has no branches, is being hosted securely in the cloud, and says it will extend beyond the current suite of products over the coming months.<\/p>\n

By joining forces with Pick n Pay and Boxer stores TymeBank said it has access to a significant distribution footprint.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy the time we complete our bank kiosk roll-out we will have 730 points of presence where customers can open accounts inside a Pick n Pay or Boxer store \u2013 we have over 500 bank-enabled kiosks in the market today,” said TymeBank chief executive officer, Sandile Shabalala.<\/p>\n

Even in stores without a bank-enabled kiosk, customers can still do their everyday banking transactions, TymeBank said.<\/p>\n

There are over 14,000 till points across the Pick n Pay and Boxer network, where customers can withdraw money free of charge and deposit money for just R4.<\/p>\n

How it works<\/strong><\/p>\n

Currently, customers can open a FICA compliant bank account in under five minutes at over 500 kiosks in Pick n Pay and Boxer stores around the country, or they can open a reduced feature account on TymeBank\u2019s website and then upgrade to a full featured account when they get to a kiosk in store.<\/p>\n

The kiosks verify customers\u2019 identity using biometrics and a range of other data and issue customers with a personalised Visa debit card, without requiring any supporting documents.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you pay or draw money with our yellow debit card, you need to know that it\u2019s going to work – every single time. For us, this is crucial,” said chief information officer of TymeBank, Dieter Botha.<\/p>\n

Botha said that his team of 180 IT professionals have been hard at work creating the secure digital platform that will earn customers\u2019 trust.<\/p>\n

Cloud \u2013 the big difference<\/strong><\/p>\n

While traditional banks have evolved around mainframe computers and on-site data centres, TymeBank said it makes heavy use of the cloud platform from Amazon Web Services (AWS).<\/p>\n

From here it links up to its Software as a Service (SaaS) core banking system, Mambu, which provides a secure ledger for customers\u2019 accounts, managing the debits and credits incurred by customers every day. With Mambu in the background, customers interface with TymeBank through its mobile friendly Internet Banking site and its Android app.<\/p>\n

The iOS app is currently in development.<\/p>\n

Internal service orchestration, payment flows, and backend services are developed in Java as microservices on the Netflix stack, it said.<\/p>\n

According to Botha, TymeBank embraced Facebook\u2019s React framework in developing the web-based customer channels, while the Android app was developed using Java.<\/p>\n

He said that two key focus areas underpin everything the IT team does: Security and Availability<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

TymeBank has invested significantly to ensure the security of customers\u2019 personal and financial data.<\/p>\n

“Conservatively we have 30-40 different tools to manage and maintain our cyber posture. This includes assurances for perimeter-,network-, application- and data security, plus all the monitoring and responses to that,\u201d Botha said.<\/p>\n

By using machine data platform Splunk\u2019s cyber incident monitoring capabilities, the bank\u2019s cyber-response team \u2018listens\u2019 to more than 40GB of network traffic a day. With algorithms checking for any anomalies, the team is ready to act twenty-four-seven, 365 days a year, and will scale this capability as the bank grows.<\/p>\n

On the software side, Botha noted that the one thing that TymeBank has done particularly well is how it has embraced the world of APIs (Application Programming Interfaces).<\/p>\n

This can be seen in the way the bank connects and works with, for example, Pick n Pay\u2019s Smart Shopper system.<\/p>\n

“None of our systems are tightly coupled; all of the APIs are loosely coupled and are managed through an API gateway,\u201d said Botha.<\/p>\n

While the security of a client\u2019s bank account is key, it won\u2019t help much if it can\u2019t be accessed due to availability problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do our best to ensure there\u2019s no single point of failure, so this incorporates multiple-paths for networking, and three different availability zones within AWS,\u201d Botha said, adding that TymeBank will move to AWS\u2019s planned South African data centres when they become available.<\/p>\n

Setting up the kiosks\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The bank manufactures its own kiosks, of which there are now more than 500 deployed at Pick n Pay and Boxer stores countrywide, TymeBank said.<\/p>\n

Typically, a kiosk consists of three main pieces of hardware:<\/p>\n