Capitec Bank: Leveraging Banking Innovations to Attract Wealthier Customers

Capitec Bank was a new bank established at the end of apartheid to offer banking services and loans to the large numbers of low-income potential customers newly opened to economic progress and aspiration by the end of the discriminatory system. The banking context was dominated by four major and long-established banks characterized by conservative legacy practices. Capitec planned to create an innovative offering to serve the low-income market and to migrate this offering into higher income groups. At the same time, the competitive context began to change, as other banks sought to attract lower-income clients as well. The case examines Capitec’s strategic options for survival and expansion in this context.