{"id":866273,"date":"2026-07-15T11:26:57","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T09:26:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=866273"},"modified":"2026-07-15T11:27:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T09:27:00","slug":"great-news-for-capitec-customers-in-south-africa-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/banking\/866273\/great-news-for-capitec-customers-in-south-africa-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Great news for Capitec customers in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Capitec is continuing to roll out bank branches across South Africa, while its competitors are cutting back on physical branches. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking at a BizTalk Masterclass<\/a>, Capitec Group CEO Graham Lee explained how the bank has planned its bank roll-out across South Africa since its inception. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lee said that when the founders started Capitec 25 years ago, they walked every part of the country, from Sandton to Soweto and beyond. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We already had an incredibly sophisticated financial sector, and there was no lack of products or banks, yet people still didn’t get served,” said Lee. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He explained that banking was too complicated, with 27 different accounts to choose from, lots of forms to fill out, and if you didn’t choose the right account, you would probably be charged too much. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also noted that banks were inaccessible in space and time. For instance, a miner in Rustenburg who got out of the ground at 5 pm would not have a branch near them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if there was a branch nearby, it would often shut down at 3 PM. Lee added that there was a lack of respect for said miner. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“When that miner walked into a branch, all the seats were covered in plastic because the branch manager didn’t want his furniture dirtied,” said Lee. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Capitec thus became the antithesis of those things by focusing on simplicity, personal service, affordability, and accessibility. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lee explained that accessibility means meeting your clients where they are, not where you want to be. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it is easy to have a branch filled with bankers in Sandton or an ATM close to the cash supply network, this is not the case in remote areas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The promise of accessibility means being where your clients are, and when your clients still need to be served by another human being, then clearly we have to be there as well,” said Lee. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“That is what is behind our branch strategy. It is not so much a branch strategy as it is just fulfilling that promise to ourselves that we will stick to those fundamentals.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The data backs this up <\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Lee’s sentiments are also reflected in Capitec’s branch numbers, which grew from 853 in 2022 to 885 in 2026, which is comfortably the highest in South Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group has also increased its ATM network by close to 1,600 over the period, with the count reaching 8,771 in 2026. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This massive physical network has also recently led to a significant increase in the number of branches offering Smart ID services across South Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Capitec was not part of the original pilot between Home Affairs and bank branches, the bank was one of several banks to join the expanded programme. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pilot required Home Affairs staff to be seconded to branches across South Africa; the new system gives banks greater access to the department’s services. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pilot was also limited to urban areas, but Capitec’s branch network has expanded rapidly across the nation’s rural areas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While there were originally only 30 branches that offered Home Affairs’ services at the start of the year, the expansion, which is led by Capitec, has expanded its reach to about 250<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With over 25 million customers, Capitec remains the nation’s largest bank from a numbers perspective. When it comes to market cap, its R538 billion remains slightly behind FirstRand’s R539 billion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Capitec <\/th>2022<\/th>2023<\/th>2024<\/th>2025<\/th>2026<\/th>Change<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Branches<\/strong><\/td>853<\/td>860<\/td>866<\/td>880<\/td>885<\/td>+32<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
ATMs<\/strong><\/td>7,178<\/td>7,988<\/td>8,382<\/td>8,798<\/td>8,771<\/td>+1,593<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div>
Source: MyBroadband<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Capitec is continuing to roll out bank branches across South Africa, as it looks to meet customers where they are.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":856723,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2077324296368578813","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[961],"tags":[1798],"class_list":["post-866273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking","tag-capitec"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866273","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=866273"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":866379,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866273\/revisions\/866379"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/856723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=866273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=866273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=866273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}