Shoprite Holdings Ltd.<\/a>, in using customer data to expand into financial services.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\nIt would be targeting shoppers already transacting in-store but not fully captured by traditional banks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pepkor plans to use its more than 6,500 stores to support the digital bank, with build costs of less than R1 billion and a return-on-equity target exceeding 30% by the fifth year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group operates over 2,500 stores in South Africa alone. It said its model combines retail footfall, device distribution and financial services on a single platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a mix it sees as unique in a market where banks dominate income and risk segmentation, retailers drive traffic and telecommunications firms control the device layer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The strategy builds on significant existing activity across its business, including more than 2 million money transfers, over 22 million cash withdrawals, and about 65,000 loans already processed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is also aimed at lower-income consumers, Pepkor\u2019s core customer base, who typically earn less than R15,000 a month. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Among those earning below R8,000, 57% prefer paying bills through retailers compared with 36% via banks, the company said, underscoring scope to shift more transactions onto its platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pepkor received regulatory approval last year to establish a banking unit and has since acquired a financial technology platform to support its expansion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
An independent advisory board, already largely in place, will oversee the lender.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In December, the retailer appointed former Investec Bank Chief Executive Officer Richard Wainwright as an independent non-executive director. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pepkor\u2019s fintech revenue rose 31% to R16.6 billion in the year through September, accounting for 17% of total sales.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pepkor has hired Merwe Scholtz to head its new banking initiative as the group prepares to operate an independent bank from next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":855441,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[961],"tags":[1421,20516],"class_list":["post-855432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking","tag-bank","tag-pepkor-holdings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855432","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=855432"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":855454,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855432\/revisions\/855454"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}