{"id":877547,"date":"2026-09-30T09:31:38","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T07:31:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=877547"},"modified":"2026-09-30T09:33:00","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T07:33:00","slug":"end-of-an-era-for-capitec-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/banking\/877547\/end-of-an-era-for-capitec-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Say goodbye to Capitec as you know it"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Finance group Capitec says it is leaving behind the era of being just a bank, with a name change and a shift toward broader services as the old guard retires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group reported a significant rise in earnings for the six months ended 31 August 2026 (H1 2027), jumping 19% to R9.5 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Net interest income for the group rose 7% to R12.73 billion, though this declined by 2% year-on-year to R6.98 billion after credit impairments (2025: R7.12 billion).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Non-net interest income shot up 21% to R16.1 billion, bringing the group’s total income from operations to R23.1 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Operating expenses were recorded at R10.5 billion, giving the group an operating profit of R12.63 billion, up 21% from R10.47 billion in the comparative period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Headline earnings per share increased by 19% to 8,262 cents, from 6,962 cents last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group declared an interim ordinary dividend per share of 3,110 cents, up 19% from 2,620 cents in H1 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Total equity increased by 16% to R62.47 billion from R53.8 billion in the comparative period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Capitec said that its strong results for the period came despite the challenging operating conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of its South African businesses grew headline earnings, which it said was a testament to the strength of its fundamentals and the resilience of its diversified business model amid change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Underpinning this, Capitec said it was becoming more than just a bank and has made a concerted effort to broaden its services to customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This includes the broadest rollout of Smart ID services across all banks, launching new stokvel accounts, and expanding into telecoms through Capitec Connect and into insurance with various products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Indicative of our journey beyond traditional banking is the recent name change from Capitec Bank Holdings Limited to Capitec Limited,” the group said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This reflects our growing focus on delivering a wider range of value-adding solutions to our clients.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dropping “bank” from its name signalled the change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since launching in March 2026, the finance group has processed over 594,000 Smart identification document applications, partnering with the Department of Home Affairs to strengthen national capacity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The programme rollout has now expanded Smart ID access to 248 branches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This “reflects our commitment to \u2018being more than a bank\u2019 by delivering value to our clients through services that make a tangible difference in their daily lives,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bank launched the Capitec Stokvel Account, a digital savings account designed for groups who want to save together towards a shared goal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bank said there are approximately 800,000 stokvels in South Africa, with over 11 million members collectively contributing about R50 billion annually. It now has a product to serve them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Capitec Connect continued to scale, it said with net income from Capitec Connect growing to R284 million (2025: R165 million).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The number of active clients in the past 3 months reached 1.8 million (2025: 1.1 million); data usage more than doubled from 14.9 petabytes to 34.3 petabytes; and voice usage grew by 84% from 311 million minutes to 573 million minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In insurance, the Credit Life, Funeral and Life Cover offerings continue to improve efficiency and scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The number of active Credit Life policies increased to 2.2 million, and the in-force sum assured grew by 8%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lives assured by Capitec Funeral Cover grew by 8% to 17.1 million, while the in-force sum assured grew by 10% to R529 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Life Cover book continued to grow strongly, with the sum assured growing by 75% to R126 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, on the banking side, it remains committed to providing its customers with the best and most affordable service it can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“For a second consecutive year, we did not increase any fees, and in some instances reduced them,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This reflects our commitment to providing affordable banking and delivering meaningful value to our clients, reinforcing the long-term sustainability of our business.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group reached 25.7 million customers in South Africa, meaning it now banks more than a third of the population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Farewell to the old guard<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Highlighting the shift and transformation of Capitec is the sunsetting of the old guard at the finance group, as several founding and long-serving executives retire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former Capitec CEO Gerrie Fourie was the last ‘founder CEO’ of the group, who retired in July 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While not a founder of the bank, Fourie had been a member of the Capitec executive management team from very early on and had overseen its large-scale growth after becoming CEO in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In June 2026, Capitec announced the retirement of Dr Chris Otto from its board, who had also worked with the group since its inception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its latest results, Capitec has announced the retirement of another stalwart: Henk Lourens<\/strong>, Executive: Strategic Initiatives, will leave at the end of November 2026 after 27 years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lourens served as head of Capitec\u2019s acquisitions department when the bank was founded and later transitioned to operations manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“As a long-serving Executive, he has made a lasting contribution to the growth of the group, helping to shape both the business and its culture,” Capitec said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We extend our sincere thanks and best wishes as he embarks on his retirement.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Capitec says its no longer just a bank, as it bids farewell to another executive after 27 years of service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":858146,"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":"2105198982720864733","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2221502445336821","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18187002766410471","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[961],"tags":[1798,26661],"class_list":["post-877547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking","tag-capitec","tag-henk-lourens"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877547","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=877547"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":877554,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877547\/revisions\/877554"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/858146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=877547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=877547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=877547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}