{"id":839052,"date":"2025-10-04T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=839052"},"modified":"2025-10-03T16:40:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T14:40:11","slug":"south-africas-biggest-bank-is-going-international","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/banking\/839052\/south-africas-biggest-bank-is-going-international\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa’s biggest bank is going international"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africa\u2019s largest bank, Capitec, wants to expand its international operations, even if these plans are still in the early stages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Capitec is South Africa\u2019s largest bank by customer numbers, with over 25 million people using the bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has also been tussling with FirstRand to have the highest value in the country, with its market cap at R400 billion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group recently saw a massive rise in headline earnings, increasing 26% to R8.0 billion for the six months ended 31 August 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One contributor that saw a massive rise in its headline earnings was AvaFin\u2014a loan provider in Mexico, Poland, Spain, Czechia and Latvia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Capitec increased its share in AvaFin from 40% to over 95% in 2024.\u00a0The international operation contributed R121 million to group headline earnings, making up 2% of the total. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

AvaFin has 250,000 clients and distributed a \u20ac303 million value of loans advanced, 94% higher than the four months ended 31 August 2024. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although AvaFin is seeing strong growth, Capitec Group CEO Graham Lee said the business remains small. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking to BusinessTech, Lee said that Capitec has the long-term vision of growing the business into an international brand, with expansion into other markets.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, he stressed that these expansion palns are still in their infancy, with no serious decisions yet to be made. Notably, the group still has to decide on which new markets to enter.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lee, who was promoted from retail bank CEO to Group CEO in July, has extensive work experience in other markets, having worked in Zimbabwe, Nigeria, the UK and Australia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amid the low-growth environment in South Africa, many of Capitec\u2019s competitors are pushing into other parts of Africa, where growth rates are some of the highest in the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

No new segment coming yet <\/h2>\n\n\n
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Although Capitec may be in the early stages of its international expansion, Lee said the near- to medium-term focus remains on its five core businesses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This includes retail banking, Fintech (including VAS + Capitec), Insurance, Business Banking and AvaFin.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite its dominance in the retail market, Lee was quick to point out that other parts of its business are still relatively small. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The business banking division only holds a small market share, which Capitec is looking to increase. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Capitec Connect is seeing strong growth in customer numbers, with over a million accounts already signed up.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lee said that acquiring further clients on Capitec Connect will continue, with the bank happy to continue its partnership with Cell C.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Capitec also recently assumed full underwriting responsibilities for its life insurance business, which also offers funeral insurance.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lee said these other businesses acquire customers via the group\u2019s personal banking division. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although some clients do join Capitec to access services outside of the personal banking segment, including Capitec Connect, this is still incredibly rare. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lee said that the group will continue expanding its branch network across South Africa, with a human experience crucial for its customers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While South Africa\u2019s other banks are pulling back from their physical presence to focus on digital avenues, Lee said that a physical presence is crucial in growing its digital presence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many customers who visit its branch will then go on to learn about the Capitec App, whose 14 million customers make it the largest in Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Capitec CEO Graham Lee has teased early phase plans for the group to expand its international business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":834870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[961],"tags":[23728,1798,18562,19274],"class_list":["post-839052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking","tag-avafin","tag-capitec","tag-capitec-connect","tag-fintech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839052","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\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=839052"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":839060,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839052\/revisions\/839060"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/834870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}