{"id":645729,"date":"2026-05-06T19:11:05","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T17:11:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=645729"},"modified":"2026-05-06T19:11:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T17:11:09","slug":"good-news-for-people-with-a-capitec-bank-account","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/banking\/645729-good-news-for-people-with-a-capitec-bank-account.html","title":{"rendered":"Good news for people with a Capitec bank account"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Capitec’s 2026 annual report shared good news for investors and clients, with an excellent financial performance and initiatives that benefited customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Capitec increased its active clients to 26 million, making it the largest bank by customers in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its headline earnings grew by 23% to R16.8 billion. “That is several years of compounding momentum, a trajectory very few can match,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bank added that they are still building, which means that their performance is far from its peak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group achieved a return on equity (ROE) of 31%, which significantly exceeded their target benchmarks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ROE of 31% is up from 29% in the previous year, driven by growth in diversified income streams and increased lending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This diversification is seen in the bank’s non-interest income, which rose by 19% to R28.3 billion, now accounting for 67% of income from operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its insurance business, Capitec Life, did particularly well, with net insurance income increasing by 38% to R5.2 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company’s entrance into business banking is also starting to pay dividends. Business Banking headline earnings grew by 20% to R871 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another strong growth area is value-added services (VAS) and Capitec Connect, with income surging by 38% to R6.1 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Capitec continues to innovate and grow, it is investing heavily in new technologies, like artificial intelligence (AI).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite these investments, the group’s cost-to-income ratio improved to 39% from 41% in the prior year, indicating disciplined cost management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All these factors helped to grow the Capitec share price by 30% over the last year, which is good news to shareholders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Capitec clients benefited over the last year<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Shareholders were not the only people who benefited over the last year. Capitec clients also had many reasons to rejoice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Capitec’s 2026 Annual Report highlighted several developments that directly benefit clients by lowering costs, improving services, and enhancing security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Capitec said it returned R1 billion directly to its clients during the year through reduced pricing, lower fees, cash back programmes, and rewards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also added value to clients by making payments easier through its zero-fee, no-margin exchange rate offering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This and other initiatives helped grow the banking app’s client base by 18%, driving an increase in payment volume on its digital channels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the last year, the bank has focused on helping businesses and entrepreneurs in South Africa with cost-effective accounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of this initiative, Capitec launched a zero-fee entrepreneur account in December 2025. As the name suggests, it has no monthly fees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This account, aimed at sole proprietors and informal enterprises, supports up to four dedicated accounts to help separate personal and business finances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Capitec spent a lot of resources to enhance security to protect its clients, which includes enhanced fraud protection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Integrated digital security capabilities, client education initiatives and AI-driven interventions enhanced protection as digital adoption increased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“During the year, more than 131,000 fraudulent beneficiaries were blocked, and over 394,000 scam payments were prevented,” Capitec CEO Graham Lee said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the biggest initiatives in 2026 was Capitec’s collaboration with the Department of Home Affairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It introduced self-service terminals at numerous branches, allowing clients to apply for and collect their Smart ID there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Capitec Connect clients also had reason to smile. Those who purchase devices and link their number to their bank account receive 5GB of free data each month for 12 months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Capitec further covered the cost of data for the MoneyUp Academy and MoneyUp Chat on WhatsApp, making it free for clients to access budgeting and saving courses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Big plans to benefit Capitec clients over the next year<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Capitec highlighted that it continues to invest billions to enhance its product offering and benefit its clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the big focus areas is using artificial intelligence (AI) to personalise client experiences at scale and further enhance financial inclusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We are building a responsible AI framework based on a commitment to unlock value for our clients,” Capitec CFO Grant Hardy said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI is already used for real-time fraud prevention, risk modelling, and employee upskilling. However, this is only the start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We have developed Capitec Pulse AI that provides real-time, contextualised client information to client support agents,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We plan to use AI in the personalisation of client experiences at scale and to further enhance financial inclusion.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Capitec chairperson, Santie Botha, added that AI is not a future aspiration for the bank. “It is already at work,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“An AI-Agent is embedded in Business Banking credit processing, with a deliberate strategy to scale it across the division,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the next year, Capitec Connect will be expanded to enable home connectivity via partnerships and expand access to device financing and affordable data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apart from IT and telecoms, Capitec was enhancing its banking and payment solutions by improving existing products and driving operational excellence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It aims to lead in embedded lending, scale its home loan offerings, and deliver vehicle asset finance through strategic partnerships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To make it easier for clients, Capitec is creating a single, seamless service model that supports all solutions, banking, insurance, and business, across all channels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Growth initiatives will be scaled and integrated in the medium term by developing a single, seamless service model that supports our suite of solutions,” it said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Capitec\u2019s 2026 annual report shared good news for investors and clients, with an excellent financial performance and initiatives that benefited customers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":645734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10106],"tags":[35793,5334,81699,6535,99332,105041,105042],"class_list":["post-645729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking","tag-artificial-intelligence-ai","tag-capitec","tag-capitec-connect","tag-department-of-home-affairs","tag-graham-lee","tag-grant-hardy","tag-santie-botha"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645729"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645729"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":645746,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645729\/revisions\/645746"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}