Bank Zero hit by downtime
Bank Zero experienced an outage on Thursday, with South Africa’s youngest digital bank notifying customers that its system was unavailable after maintenance took longer than expected.
“We are all hands on deck to come back up as soon as possible,” Bank Zero said in a post on Twitter/X. “We will post here as soon as it is fixed.”
Outage tracking website Downdetector shows that customers began reporting problems accessing the bank’s systems around 07:00 on Thursday, 21 August 2025.
Attempting to log into Bank Zero’s online platform yielded a Not Found error: “Failed to login try again later! Requested resource/service could not be found.”
A spokesperson for the bank told MyBroadband that their app was back online at just after 09:00.
Bank Zero was founded seven years ago by Michael Jordaan, banking innovator Yatin Narsai, and five other co-founders.
The mutual bank, registered with the South African Reserve Bank in 2018 and launched in 2021, offers low fees for personal and business banking, with most transactions free.
Bank Zero uses IBM Z mainframe computers and LinuxONE as a secure platform that can protect against data breaches with IBM’s Secure Service Container.
It has no physical bank branches and operates as a fully digital bank through its mobile app, available on both Android and iPhone.
Its initial focus was proving its unique problem-solving concept of a patented card immune to fraud and phishing.
The bank said that this 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,” Bank Zero said.
Several major banks had also launched low-cost accounts with digital-only sign-ups to compete for affordability-focused customers.
Although Bank Zero did not achieve the same growth as competitors like Discovery Bank and TymeBank, it has a different business model.
Bank Zero was built from the ground up with efficiency in mind, which gave it the freedom to grow gradually without the need for aggressive marketing.
Another key segment has been digitally savvy customers seeking fraud-resistant yet straightforward solutions.
The bank reported that deposits, card purchases, and electronic fund transfers are increasing continuously, 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,” it said.
Lesaka Technologies announced in June 2025 that it had acquired Bank Zero for just under R1.1 billion, pending regulatory approvals.
Loading ...