South Africa’s “secret” cheap bank is coming out of hiding

Bank Zero is experiencing substantial growth and will soon begin targeting a much wider customer base looking for low-cost banking services.

Launched in 2021, Bank Zero is among the lesser-known affordability-focused digital banks in South Africa, despite having the backing of some big names in banking.

Among Bank Zero’s seven co-founders is former FNB CEO Michael Jordaan, who spearheaded digital innovation at South Africa’s oldest bank from 2004 to 2013.

Jordaan’s digital drive gave FNB an edge over its traditional rivals for several years.

Many analysts were excited when he started teasing Bank Zero’s launch in 2018, but by the time it arrived, a formidable rival had entered the arena — TymeBank.

Several major banks had also launched low-cost accounts with digital-only sign-ups to compete in the tussle for affordability-focused customers.

Bank Zero appears to have received little attention in recent years, and its customer numbers are not yet at a key target of 100,000, whereas TymeBank accounts have grown to 14 million.

However, because Bank Zero was built from the ground up with efficiency and has been run like a lean start-up, it was able to grow gradually without aggressive marketing or infrastructure costs in its early years.

In recent feedback to MyBroadband, the company said its initial focus was proving its unique problem-solving concept of a patented card immune to fraud and phishing.

The bank said that strategy had attracted a disproportionate number of businesses and high-income earners to its services.

“These higher-value target segments provide healthy and steady growth,” the bank said.

Another key segment has been digitally-savvy customers seeking simple but fraud-resistant solutions.

The bank said that deposits, card purchases, and electronic fund transfers are continuously increasing, with year-on-year growth exceeding 50%.

Bank Zero has recorded deposits of roughly R400 million. For the year ending December 2024, card spending totalled R415 million across its customer base.

“We’re now tracking ahead of plan with expected break even by 2027. Our challenge is to try and get there much sooner,” the bank said.

To better appeal to the masses, Bank Zero has recently rolled out and will continue to launch more “expected” features, which were not a priority initially.

Recent examples of this included the addition of immediate payments and support for its first smart tap-to-pay wallet — Google Wallet — which was added in November 2024.

“These two projects have amplified our customer numbers, card purchases, and payments,” Bank Zero said.

The bank is also adding Apple Wallet support soon, which would mean its cards will support tap-to-pay via nearly all NFC-enabled smartphones.

Another big addition will be cross-border electronic payments to complement the bank’s cross-border card payments.

“As per our DNA, we are also planning to bring significant customer relief in this space,” Bank Zero said.

Multiple MyBroadband and Solidarity Research Institute analyses have shown that Bank Zero exchanges blows with TymeBank for the most affordable bank account and fees in South Africa.

However, the bank said it had been holding off on significant advertising until it could support more commonly requested features in addition to its unique offering. That is about to change.

“Bank Zero has remained a secret to many, and this is about to change as we ramp up digital marketing,” the bank said.

The bank still plans to continue innovating in the security space, with the next big challenge being the addition of app-jacking protection.

“This innovation is still in its very early days, but we want to crack this, as it would bring massive relief,” Bank Zero said.

Biggest achievements include zero fraud and app store ratings boost

Bank Zero said foremost among its milestones since launch was proving its cards were immune from fraud and phishing. “No other bank in the world can say that,” the bank said.

“We rarely see customers doing card chargebacks as things like stolen cards or stolen card data are useless when attempted to be used.”

It believes its growing reputation as a safe bank has helped improve Bank Zero’s Apple App Store and Google Play Store ratings substantially from the bank’s earlier days.

From roughly a year after its launch to February 2025, the App Store rating improved from 3.7 to 4.0 out of 5, while the Google Play Store rating jumped from 3.4 to 4.7 out of 5.

Aside from is focus on security, the bank attributed the improvement to service excellence being core to its approach.

“It’s wonderful to have powerful innovations but it’s rubbish if there’s no decent support,” the bank said.

“Our customer support systems are state-of-the-art and often that what might seem impossible to a customer, can be solved simply through a quick support interaction.”

“Customers can’t believe we respond intelligently to Sunday queries. They often think it’s AI, but it’s not. It’s just great end-to-end banking platform design in action.”

Bank Zero said other banks cannot offer this type of support as they would need an integrated banking solution.

“Traditional banks spending billions of rand still can’t buy this, as there’s no such package out there.”

“Unfortunately, they end up with feature-poor legacy platforms which require lots of ‘customer centricity’.”