Africa\u2019s biggest seller of clothing and mobile phones plans to open bank branches in South Africa that offer zero-fee services, using its 6,000 store network in the country to reach millions of lower-income customers, people familiar with the matter said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pepkor Holdings Ltd. is likely to partner with Investec, though discussions are underway and there\u2019s no certainty a deal will be reached, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the process is ongoing. The profits of the new venture, which is likely to be called \u201cPep Bank\u201d, would be split between the retailer and the lender that focuses on high-net worth individuals in South Africa, the people said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By opening Pep Bank within its existing stores, the retailer can roll branches out quickly and attract customers who already frequent its discount outlets. It can also use the substantial data it has collected on customers to more effectively tailor financial products to sell to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Investec, which is dual-listed in South Africa and the UK, has been seeking new sources of income in recent years to offset sluggish growth in Africa\u2019s most industrialized economy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s been pursuing the private banking clients of bigger South African rivals and is expanding its business banking unit with a payments system for corporate clients to process high-volume, low-value payments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No agreement or partnership \u201cwith any bank\u201d is in place, Pepkor said in a response to questions, declining to comment further. Investec declined to comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Capitec Bank Holdings Ltd., South Africa\u2019s biggest lender by customer numbers, is already a significant force in consumer lending and in September posted record profit for a fourth straight year driven by demand from low-income depositors and unsecured lenders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Other retailers, including the country\u2019s largest grocer Shoprite Holdings Ltd., are also using their rapidly growing consumer data gathered from loyalty programs to offer banking solutions to about a sixth of South Africans that have no bank account or are under-serviced by traditional lenders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many local retailers already offer basic financial services such as fund transfers, bill payments and cash withdrawals. Revenue at Pepkor\u2019s Fintech unit rose 35% to R7.9 billion in the six months through March, accounting for 16% of the retailer\u2019s total sales.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Africa\u2019s biggest seller of clothing and mobile phones plans to open bank branches in South Africa that offer zero-fee services, using its 6,000 store network in the country to reach millions of lower-income customers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":834608,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[961],"tags":[1498,4076],"class_list":["post-843648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking","tag-investec","tag-pepkor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843648","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\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=843648"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":843651,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843648\/revisions\/843651"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/834608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=843648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=843648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=843648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}