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Old Mutual Gets Their Banking License

Old Mutual has received approval from the SARB’s Prudential Authority to launch OM Bank

Old Mutual Bank

Old Mutual, known as one of South Africa’s biggest insurers, just got the green light from the Reserve Bank to start OM Bank.

Old Mutual used to own a large stake in Nedbank until 2018. So, they are familiar with the banking space and have successfully dipped their toes into the space in the past.

Old Mutual have been planning on launching the bank for some time and two years after applying, they finally got their banking license approved (after finally setting up all the bank’s necessary systems near the end of 2023).

Increased Competition For Traditional Banks

OM Bank is joining other newer banks like Discovery Bank, TymeBank, and Bank Zero in South Africa.

Much like the government’s recent plans for PostBank, OM Bank will focus on regular folks who earn between R1,000 and R30,000 per month, competing hard with banks like Capitec and the fast growing TymeBank.

OM have said that they know that competition in the space is very tough and all the newer digital banks are all trying to get customers from big banks like Standard Bank and FNB. Still, they feel it is worth the effort.

Old Mutual’s CEO, Iain Williamson, says that despite all the competitors out there (digital or traditional) OM Bank has something special to offer.

Next

Next, Old Mutual do some more testing with their system and test clients and connect to the National Payments System to start moving money around. 

Then will come an extensive advertising campaign and lots of comms to existing OM clients and perspective new bank clients.

Finally it will be time to go live and we will see what they plan to do to try sway clients to join the new bank.