{"id":833008,"date":"2025-07-25T10:49:54","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T08:49:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=833008"},"modified":"2025-07-25T10:50:22","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T08:50:22","slug":"one-of-south-africas-newest-banks-has-a-new-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/banking\/833008\/one-of-south-africas-newest-banks-has-a-new-name\/","title":{"rendered":"One of South Africa’s newest banks officially has a new name"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Young Women in Business Network (YWBN) Mutual Bank has officially changed its name to eNL Mutual Bank, with the Reserve Bank’s Prudential Authority gazetting the change on Friday (25 July).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The change was effective 1 July 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bank’s new name refers to its founder and managing director, Nthabeleng Likotsi, who became the first woman to start a bank in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Likotsi championed the formation of the bank, which is also the first majority black women-owned Mutual Bank in the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the group, the bank’s founding community members voted unanimously to have the name changes ahead of an official launch, to recognise Likotsi’s “heroic efforts” in establishing the bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“She had the vision, tenacity and the ability to pursue this groundbreaking endeavour that is not only historic, but unusual,” the bank said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“She joins the ranks of women pioneers who dare to strive to achieve excellence in their field and contribute positively to economic freedom in South Africa today.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The official gazetting of the name change cames at the end of legal proceedings earlier this year, where the bank sought a court order to force the South African Reserve Bank’s Prudential Authority to process the change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the bank had submitted the change, it accused the Prudential Authority of showing no interest in processing it, which it claimed was causing delays and disruptions to its launch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First announced back in 2018<\/strong><\/a>, eNL started operating at a cooperative financial institution (CFI).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CFIs can only offer services to its members, but Likotsi had ambitions to serve a wider market and started the process to convert eNL into a fully-fledged mutual bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bank finally received its mutual banking licence at the beginning of 2024, with the Prudential Authority gazetting its registration in January that year.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bank said at the time that it would spend 2024 using this licence to complete its bank build and launch sometime in 2025 or later.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

eNL launched its EFT services in May 2025, enabling transfers between eNL and other banking institutions. Earlier this month, Likotsi alluded to a full launch for the bank in March 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once launched, eNL will join the likes of OM Bank, Postbank and state-run cooperative bank, SAIFSC, in South Africa’s bustling banking landscape. It is the only new mutual bank launching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mutual banks are banks that are ultimately owned by their depositors, who in turn become shareholders in the bank and can have a say in its operations through general meetings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These banks tend to be more conservative in their investing and lending operations, usually more focused on saving. They are also restricted, by law, in their investment and lending operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the SARB, there are only four mutual banks currently operating in the country \u2013 these include Bank Zero Mutual Bank, Finbond Mutual Bank and GBS Mutual Bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VBS Mutual Bank was also a prominent player in the sector before being liquidated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notably, Bank Zero was recently acquired by Lesaka Technologies for R1.1 billion\u2014something which eNL’s Likotsi said was a “game changer”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still subject to regulatory approval, the deal will see Lesaka acquire 100% of Bank Zero\u2019s issued ordinary shares. The transaction is structured as a mix of newly issued Lesaka shares and up to R91 million in cash. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once completed, Bank Zero\u2019s shareholders will own about 12% of Lesaka\u2019s fully diluted shares. Leseka said that the transaction represents a significant milestone in its growth trajectory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Likotsi and eNL’s other members at the granting of the Mutual Banking licence in 2024<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Young Women in Business Network (YWBN) Mutual Bank has officially changed its name.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":746862,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[961],"tags":[23231,20355,23230],"class_list":["post-833008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking","tag-enl-mutual-bank","tag-prudential-authority","tag-ywbn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=833008"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":833013,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833008\/revisions\/833013"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/746862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=833008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=833008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=833008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}