New digital bank taking on Capitec opens pre-registrations

Old Mutual has opened pre-registrations for OM Bank, its upcoming digital bank that aims to compete with Capitec in the same market segment.

MyBroadband recently noticed the bank’s mobile app was quietly released on the Google Play Store on 14 April 2025 and the Apple App Store on 3 May 2025.

The first page of the app confirms that it is currently only available to a select group of people. However, anyone can download the app and pre-register their interest if they are not part of this group.

To do so, users must provide an ID number, e-mail address, and cellphone number to get their name in the hat.

The app states that OM Bank will start sending invites to users as soon as it’s ready, presumably when the soft launch takes place.

OM Bank CEO Clarence Nethengwe subsequently explained to MyBroadband that current users primarily consisted of Old Mutual employees but that more people would be able to join the bank soon.

“We look forward to welcoming an advance group of invited customers starting in the third quarter of 2025, and we are on track for a public launch in Q4 this year,” Nethengwe said.

Several screenshots of the app on mobile stores provide a sneak peek at some of its features, although some of these may change before the public rollout.

It appears that OM Bank will offer personal accounts with both pay-as-you-use and bundle fees, catering to users with both occasional and regular transactional habits.

In a description of a screenshot, OM Bank says its personal account includes transactional and credit options, a free savings account, and a personal financial assistant.

There is also a section for a five-tier loyalty programme called OM Rewards. It is unclear whether this will be linked to the existing Old Mutual rewards programme.

While it uses the same 10 points = R1 conversion rate, the latter does not have a tiering system. If it supports use by the same partners as the existing programme, OM Rewards could be a big drawing card.

The programme has 47 partners where users can spend their points, including Checkers, Woolworths, Takealot, Makro, Showmax, Game, Builders, Dis-Chem, and all four major cellular networks.

Restaurant and take-out outlets include KFC, Steers, Nando’s Wimpy, Spur, Krispy Kreme, Kauai, and Panarotti’s.

Gunning for Capitec’s kingdom

Early reviews of OM Bank appear to be positive, although it should be noted that these are still limited in number and are primarily from Old Mutual or the bank’s staff.

In general, users seemed impressed with the sign-up process. However, several have already expressed disappointment and the lack of support for digital wallets like Apple Pay.

It should be emphasised that the current versions of the app are still early builds and a lot of additional features and design tweaks could be made before it officially launches.

Old Mutual initially planned to roll out OM Bank by the end of 2024 before postponing to the first quarter of 2025.

In a voluntary operating update for the first quarter of 2025, Old Mutual said that the full launch of the bank remained “on track”.

OM Bank is specifically targeting the upper mass market and lower affluent customers with monthly incomes between R5,000 and R80,000.

These customers fall into the same market served by Capitec, which is currently South Africa’s biggest bank by customers.

Old Mutual has invested substantially in building the bank, including R2.8 billion between 2022 and 2024.

It also expects the bank will initially run at an annual loss between R1.1 billion and R1.3 billion. However, this is anticipated to decline gradually before breakeven in 2028.

While it has to do a lot of legwork to catch up to other digital banks, Old Mutual can leverage its existing one million Money Account users to get OM Bank off to a strong start.

The firm also has a substantial loan book of more than R20 billion and 3.1 million low-income customers in its mass and foundation insurance cluster.