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Good Progress in Just 90 Days

In just a few months, Old Mutual Bank (OM Bank) has already signed up thousands of customers and built real momentum.

While the financial figures obviously show early losses now when the bank is in its infancy, management remains confident about the long term plan and the growth to come.

This is because OM Bank are only planning to break even in 2028. 

Building Momentum in Record Time

OM Bank’s growth numbers are impressive.

After an internal launch to staff earlier in 2025, onboarding expanded steadily before opening more widely to the public at the end of the year.

‘OM Bank has already reached around 140,000 active customers’

Within three months of its “soft launch”, OM Bank has already reached around 140,000 active customers.

In October 2025 alone, about 80,000 customers joined and the bank has been onboarding roughly 5,000 customers per day. 

This kind of early traction shows strong demand and careful planning behind the scenes.

A Long Term Game

Of course, building a bank is expensive.

OM Bank reported a R579 million loss in the six months to June 2025 and expects annual losses of between R1.1 billion and R1.3 billion over the next two years.

Those numbers may look crazy at first glance. But for a new bank backed by a major financial services group, these are normal start up figures.

Large banks invest heavily upfront in systems, staff, technology and customer acquisition. Old Mutual has also set aside R1.7 billion in capital for further growth. The focus now is on building scale, not short term profit.

Using Their Existing Relationships To Grow

One of OM Bank’s biggest advantages is that it did not start from scratch.

Old Mutual already had significant “bank like” operations in place.

Its Money Account business includes hundreds of thousands of transaction and savings accounts and around R1.5 billion in deposits.

Old Mutual Finance brings a R15.5 billion loan book, 346 branches and more than 2,000 staff.

Old Mutual Connect adds over 160,000 mobile customers to the ecosystem. By bringing these operations together under OM Bank, the group has given the new bank an immediate head start.

The strategy going forward is clear. Old Mutual plans to migrate around 500,000 existing Money Account customers to the new platform and attract many more from its broader client base.

The group already serves millions of South Africans through insurance, lending and investment products. A banking app creates far more regular interaction with clients than most other financial products.

Old Mutual estimates that banking could result in up to 24 interactions per client per year. That creates ongoing engagement and new opportunities to serve clients more effectively.

‘OM Bank aims to grow to between 2.5 million and 3 million customers’

To reach profitability by 2028, OM Bank aims to grow to between 2.5 million and 3 million customers.

That is pretty ambitious, but the early growth rate suggests the target is not totally unrealistic even in a rather saturated digital banking environment.

With strong existing relationships, a national branch footprint, significant digital investment and a rather well known and trusted brand behind it, OM Bank has positioned itself for rapid scaling.