Capitec begins new era with a bang

Capitec has reported a strong set of interim results under the leadership of its new CEO, Graham Lee, who officially took the helm from Capitec founder Gerrie Fourie in June 2025.

Capitec is South Africa’s biggest bank by clients, boasting 14 million banking app clients and just under 25 million active clients.

On Wednesday, 1 October, Capitec released its interim results for the six months ended 31 August 2025.

This revealed a strong performance for the banking giant, with basic earnings per share up 24% to R6.93 billion.

The bank’s income grew across all business units, with net interest income after credit impairments up 27% to R7.1 billion and net non-interest income up 19% to R13.4 billion.

Lee explained in the bank’s interim results presentation that 65% of Capitec’s income from operations comes from business other than credit.

The bank also recorded strong growth in its insurance business, which saw net insurance income rise by 45% to R2.4 billion.

Capitec’s fintech segment, which includes its value-added services and Capitec Connect business, grew income by 40% to R2.9 billion.

Lee explained that this represents a significant shift from only a few years ago, when Capitec was largely a credit business. “Now, we are so much more than that,” he said.

The group saw slightly more subdued growth in transaction income, which grew by 6% to R6.28 billion. 

Lee largely attributed this to the bank’s decision earlier this year to lower and simplify its fee structure and transaction prices for the Personal and Business Banking segment.

The bank said this fee reduction saved its Personal banking clients R106 million and its Business banking clients R2 million for the six-month period. 

Positively, Lee said the bank has seen strong growth in card and digital payments, with a 131% increase in transactions using pay wallets, as clients continue to shift from cash to digital.

Overall, Capitec made a profit of nearly R8 billion for the six-month period, up 24% compared to the six months ended August 2024..

The bank’s return on equity grew from 29% in August 2024 to 31% in 2025, while its annualised credit loss ratio increased to 7.9% from 7.6%.

On the back of these strong results, Capitec upped its interim dividend to 2,620 cents per share, a 26% increase compared to the six months ended August 2024.