Capitec to face strong competition from Shoprite and Pepkor
Capitec is set to face intensified competition in the coming years following a period of substantial growth, with at least three major businesses targeting the same or similar customers.
Old Mutual, Shoprite Holdings, and Pepkor Holdings have or plan to launch banks that serve the low-end and up-and-coming middle-income market.
Capitec has been a significant success story in the South African banking industry, coming from behind to surpass the country’s four biggest incumbent banks in customers with a multi-decade disadvantage.
Founded in 2001 by Michiel le Roux, Jannie Mouton, and Riaan Stassen, Capitec grew its client base from around 25,000 customers in its launch year to more than 26 million in 2026.
Since its official listing on the JSE in 2002, Capitec’s share price has grown from R0.55 to around R4,600, driven by its impressive customer growth and consistently strong financial performance.
The bank now faces an onslaught from two prominent retailers and a seasoned financial service provider looking to acquire similar customers as Capitec.
Africa’s largest clothing and cellular retailer, Pepkor Holdings, secured the Prudential Authority’s approval to launch its banking business in November 2025.
It appointed Merwe Scholtz as banking chief in March 2026. He will reportedly head up Pep Bank, which is set to launch in 2027.
Scholtz has been tasked with rolling out Pep Bank across 2,500 Pep outlets. That compares with 860 Capitec branches. With 6,000 stores across all Pepkor brands, Pep Bank has great expansion potential.
Pepkor has also acquired fintech software company Cloudbadger to help power its banking platform’s key services, which will include deposits, savings, payments, and loans.
Pep Bank reportedly plans to provide no-fee banking services and has been in talks with Investec about a potential partnership. However, no agreements have been confirmed to date.
Checkers owner Shoprite Holdings recently also detailed its intentions in the banking sector. It began dipping its toes in financial services with the Money Market transactional account in 2020.
In March 2026, Shoprite CEO Pieter Engelbrecht said the service had been upgraded and had experienced significant growth as a result, with users increasing from four to six million in months.
Shoprite and OM Bank’s low-cost competitors
Engelbrecht explained that Shoprite’s Money Market account targeted lower-income earners in South Africa, particularly those receiving social grants — an area in which Capitec currently dominates.
The retailer believes as much as half of its profit could come from banking in the next 10 years, and it already has strong foundations in terms of customers and footprint to work off.
Old Mutual’s OM Bank targets customers earning between R8,000 and R80,000 per month. This is the same type of customer that makes up a significant portion of Capitec’s customer base.
It also plans to leverage Old Mutual money account users and its lending book to OM Bank customers to rapidly grow its customer base, with the goal of reaching break-even by its 2028 financial year.
OM Bank launched to the public in November 2025, following several months of private and public beta testing.
Old Mutual said the move to launch transactional banking services would help it engage with customers more regularly, while retail deposits would provide a more affordable funding source.
It built the bank on 10x Banking’s cloud technology, which Old Mutual said enabled it to offer affordable, flexible, and personalised services.
In addition to targeting a similar market to Capitec, Old Mutual launched its mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), Old Mutual Connect, in November 2024, which competes with Capitec Connect.
The company said its MVNO offered affordable data and connectivity, critical enablers for customers to transact digitally, including with OM Bank.
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