{"id":428738,"date":"2020-08-28T16:00:49","date_gmt":"2020-08-28T14:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=428738"},"modified":"2020-08-28T09:46:04","modified_gmt":"2020-08-28T07:46:04","slug":"capitec-customer-base-surges-past-14-5-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/banking\/428738\/capitec-customer-base-surges-past-14-5-million\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitec customer base surges past 14.5 million"},"content":{"rendered":"

Capitec chief executive officer, Gerrie Fourie, says that the bank now has 14.5 million customers – an increase of 600,000 new customers since last reporting<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Fourie told What’s Next in Fintech host Aki Anastasiou that the bank has seen some changes to customers’ banking behaviour during the Covid-19 pandemic and nationwide lockdown, but there was also suprisingly little change among certain demographics.<\/p>\n

The biggest swings were seen in the high-income bracket, where there was a major shift to embrace digital banking and online communication. However, in the low-income bracket, cash remained king.<\/p>\n

“At lower-income levels, there was no real change or swing (in behaviour), because they are very cash-dependent. We expected a big cash reduction, but it was actually very small,” Fourie said.<\/p>\n

This posed an interesting challenge for Capitec and other banking groups, he said – how to get lower-income groups to be less cash-dependent.<\/p>\n