GoTyme Bank has opened its first mall-based customer hubs and will remove kiosks from Pick n Pay stores by month-end, reshaping the physical footprint of one of South Africa’s fastest-growing digital banks.

It’s first two Customer Experience Hubs are now operating at Rosebank Mall in Johannesburg and Dobsonville Mall in Soweto, as the bank shifts part of its in-person support away from supermarket kiosks and towards shopping centre-based service points.

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GoTyme said the move is intended to combine digital banking with face-to-face help for customers who still need assistance with services such as debit card issuance, deposits and withdrawals.

The kiosks inside Pick n Pay stores will no longer be available from 31 March, although customers will still be able to deposit and withdraw cash at Pick n Pay tills.

The bank said it will continue operating kiosks in selected TFG (formerly The Foschini Group) and Boxer stores while rolling out more mall-based hubs around the country.

“Banking distribution is changing,” chief executive Cheslyn Jacobs said in a LinkedIn post.

“Today, more people are opening accounts digitally. They’re banking on their phones. Yet physical access remains important for deposits, withdrawals, and when customers need to speak to a helpful human.”

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The expansion comes weeks after the bank formally changed its name from TymeBank to GoTyme Bank, a rebrand it said aligned the South African business with the Tyme Group, which serves about 20 million customers globally.

The bank now serves more than 12 million customers locally, up from the 10 million milestone it announced in 2024. It launched in South Africa in 2019.

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Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber has officially introduced a complete upgraded digital verification system to facilitate services that require South Africa’s identity document.

The verification system will speed up the identification process using biometric features like fingerprints and facial recognition against the National Population Register.

“This marks the most significant upgrade to the Home Affairs verification service since it was launched and will dramatically reduce waiting times whenever a client needs to verify their identity with the department to obtain a social grant or open a bank account,” Schreiber said in a statement.

The upgrade will improve service delivery while supporting economic growth in both the public and private sectors.

“When this vital Home Affairs system is down, slow, or littered with errors, it negatively impacts upon the ability of banks, insurance companies and other financial service providers to verify clients and conduct business,” he added.

Lately, the system has reported a failure rate of up to 50% on verifications, delaying the identification process.

However, the department said delays would be a thing of the past since testing has confirmed that the upgraded system was not only capable of dramatically providing faster performance, but it has delivered an error rate of well below 1%.

After obtaining concurrence from Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana, the department has gazetted a new set of fees associated with the use of this verification service to ensure its ongoing maintenance.

The department said fees for the use of the digital verification service by private sector companies would increase for the first time in over a decade with effect from 1 April 2025.

“This investment in our population register is not only overdue, but also important for delivering on the vision for digital ID, as outlined by President Cyril Ramaphosa during the State of the Nation Address, as a secure and efficient population register forms the cornerstone of digital ID,” Schreiber said.

He also said the launch of the reformed verification system was further proof that the department was making progress in the journey of digital transformation.

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President Cyril Ramaphosa has set out clear and actionable priorities for the G20 Presidency for the country when it hosts the premier forum for international economic cooperation under the theme: solidarity, equality and sustainability.

The president tabled these priorities during the first meeting of the newly appointed Presidential Economic Advisory Council for the 7^th administration.

In a statement released after the meeting, The Presidency said the priorities for the G20 Presidency included mobilising finance to support a just transition and addressing the unsustainable debt burden on developing countries.

They would also include strengthening disaster resilience and response and harnessing critical minerals for inclusive growth and sustainable development.

The statement said the meeting discussed proposals to advance these priorities, building on the progress made on issues such as international taxation, reform of multilateral development banks and climate finance.

“The Presidential Economic Advisory Council will play an important role in providing independent advice as we seek to ensure that our economic policy is informed by sound evidence, by innovation and by a diversity of views and opinions,” Ramaphosa said in the statement.

He highlighted the important role that the council would play as the Government of National Unity looked to reignite economic growth and tackle poverty and inequality.

“The meeting reaffirmed the necessity of structural transformation and economic reforms to accelerate economic growth and discussed forward-looking policy proposals in areas such as green industrial policy, skills development and macroeconomic policy.

“Members of the council discussed the need to position South Africa for growth in a rapidly changing global environment, in which technological advances in artificial intelligence and the imperative of tackling climate change will lead to structural changes in economies,” the statement said.

However, it emphasised that the key topic of discussion was South Africa’s role in advancing the global economic policy agenda as it assumed the Presidency of the G20.

The council members were appointed in November 2024 to serve in the non-statutory and independent body chaired by the president. It brings together prominent economists and technical experts drawn from academia, the private sector, labour, community, think-tanks and other constituencies.

The council comprises expertise in international economics, macroeconomics, labour economics, economics of education and the economics of poverty and inequality and urban development.

Other areas of insights entail microeconomics with a focus on network industries, regulation and competition, trade, energy and climate change.  

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The government has reaffirmed its commitment to fighting corruption, with Public Service and Administration Minister Inkosi Mzamo Buthelezi warning that not only does it threaten the future of the nation, it is a betrayal by leaders who South Africans have placed their trust in.

“Corruption is not only a scourge that threatens the very fabric of our democracy and the future of our nation. It is an administrative failure and an act of cruelty and betrayal of the nation by (an) evil alliance of the very same people we trusted to be our leaders – yet they are not, but unscrupulous individuals.

“Such acts threaten our democracy, hinder our country’s development and perpetuate inequality,” he said on Monday.

Buthelezi was speaking at the National Dialogue on Anti-Corruption that coincided with International Anti-Corruption Day.

He described corruption as “a cancer bleeding our resources, stealing from the poor and eating away at our future”.

The dialogue, which was led by the National Anti-Corruption Advisory Council and the Public Service Commission, focused on fostering collaboration across all sectors of society.

Buthelezi said fighting corruption was a shared responsibility.

“The fight against corruption is not the responsibility of the government alone, but a societal challenge that requires the participation of every sector from government, private, civil, academia and most importantly, active and vigilant citizens.”

The National Anti-Corruption Strategy 2020-2030 was presented as a robust roadmap for reform.

With its six pillars, it emphasises transparency, accountability and active citizenry as essential components to fight the scourge.

Buthelezi outlined several initiatives already underway to strengthen governance and accountability.

These included enhancing protection for whistleblowers.

“We must create an environment where exposing shenanigans and telling the truth thrives.”

He also highlighted the digitisation of procurement processes as a critical step to improving transparency and minimising irregularities.

Buthelezi stressed the importance of professionalising the public service through merit-based recruitment and ethical training to eliminate patronage and nepotism.

“Through collective action, we can reclaim the values of integrity, accountability and transparency that should define our nation,” the minister told delegates.

Recognising the critical role of young people in shaping SA’s future, he called on the youth to actively combat corruption.

“The youth, as our country’s future leaders, must be empowered to champion integrity and accountability,” he said.

Buthelezi encouraged initiatives like civic education, community engagement and leadership development to nurture a generation committed to good governance.

“Their energy, creativity and commitment are essential in shaping a future that prioritises good governance over greed,” he added.

Buthelezi stressed the importance of involving communities in monitoring procurement projects.

“Every breach must be met with swift and decisive consequences. No individual, regardless of rank, is above the law,” he asserted.

The minister also pointed out that corruption could not be eradicated without addressing collusion between the public and private sectors, especially in the financial sector.

“There are no financial transactions that take place without the active participation and processing of the banking sector,” he said, emphasising the need for banks to adopt strict ethical standards and work actively to prevent illicit financial activities.

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The heads of Wall Street’s biggest banks used an appearance on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to plead with senators to stop the Biden administration’s proposed changes to how banks are regulated, warning that the new proposals could negatively impact the economy at a time of geopolitical turmoil and inflation.

Wall Street’s most powerful bankers have regularly appeared in front of Congress going back to the 2008 financial crisis. Among those testifying before the Senate Banking Committee included JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon, Bank of America’s Brian Moynihan, Jane Fraser of Citigroup and Goldman Sachs’ David Solomon.

Whereas in previous years the bank CEOs used the hearing to highlight the industry’s good deeds, this year they warned about the potential dangers of over-regulating the industry.

The banks are adamantly against a number of proposed regulations that could hit their profitability, including new rules from the Federal Reserve that would require big banks to hold additional capital on their balance sheets. The industry says the new regulations, known as the Basel Endgame, would curtail lending and weaken bank balance sheets at a time when the industry needs more flexibility.

There are also proposals coming from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that would rein in overdraft fees, which have also been a longtime source of revenue for the consumer banks.

“I’ve been at this for a long time. I’ve sat on the board of the New York Federal Reserve. I’ve seen a lot of rules, and (this proposal) just doesn’t make sense,” said James Gorman, CEO of Morgan Stanley, in response to a question.

The other seven CEOs were uniform in their comments in both their prepared remarks and answers to Senators’ questions.

“(The regulations) were not thoughtfully done and should be relooked at,” Dimon said.

The industry’s opposition has saturated the Washington media market over the last several weeks, which came up in senators’ remarks during the hearing.

“You should stop pouring money into lobbying against efforts to protect the taxpayers who subsidize your entire industry,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio and the committee chairman.

Brown, a longtime big bank critic, is unlikely to be persuaded by the CEOs’ comments. Instead the CEOs were aiming to reach more moderate Democratic members of the committee. Only a handful of Democrats asked questions in support of the new regulations, while most Republicans did appear to be against the rules.

Even Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, who typically is among the most combative with Dimon and the other CEOs at these hearings, avoided the topic. Warren asked the CEOs for support for her cryptocurrency anti-money laundering bill. Longtime critics of crypto, the CEOs were more than happy to publicly support her bill.

One Republican notably did seem skeptical about the CEOs’ messages. Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio used his time to ask the CEOs why their banks support public policy positions like gun control, voter ID laws and other bills, but then want to turn to the GOP for less regulation and lower taxes when it suits them.

This year has been a tough one for the banking industry, as high interest rates have caused banks and consumers to seek fewer loans and consumers are facing financial pressure from inflation. Three larger banks failed this year — Signature Bank, Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic Bank — after the banks experienced a run on deposits and questions about the health of their balance sheets.

It is partly because of the bank runs at Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic this year that regulators have proposed more stricter regulations for banks with assets over $100 billion.

AP

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