TymeBank's new CEO, Tauriq Keraan, has moneylending on his to-do list as he takes the reins at the branchless institution controlled by African Rainbow Capital (ARC).
Keraan was tapped as CEO this week after Sandile Shabalala resigned two months ago for personal reasons.
Launched in February this year, TymeBank has already signed up 610,000 clients for its low-cost accounts, says Keraan. But he concedes that fewer than half the accounts are in active use.
"We are now seeing some of our older vintages of clients, who signed up more than a month ago, going active," he says.
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Without bricks-and-mortar branches, the bank uses kiosks at Pick n Pay stores to sign up clients, or they can open accounts online.
"We have reached the threshold of R1bn in deposits and half of that was in the last two months," says Keraan.
But in banking terms that is not big. The real business will begin when the bank starts lending.
Six months ago, Johan van Zyl, the CEO of ARC — which holds about 65% of TymeBank — said it would break even when it had 2-million clients and was able to lend to 6% of them. "We actually don't have to lend to break even," says Keraan.
The bank's target is a loan book worth R2.5bn by 2022, but with feeble economic growth, this is not set in stone.
By the first half of next year TymeBank's clients should be able to take out loans, and with an approval time of just two minutes, Keraan says.
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