Billionaire Patrice Motsepe’s banking giant ditches Pick n Pay kiosks

GoTyme Bank is beginning a major shift in how it interacts with clients, with the bank backed by Patrice Motsepe, rolling out new Customer Experience Hubs in shopping malls across South Africa. 

The bank describes this as a “rebalancing” of its physical footprint, having historically relied upon kiosks within Pick n Pay stores for its physical presence. 

This is coming to an end, with GoTyme no longer going to have any kiosks within Pick n Pay stores, as it shifts physical interactions to its new hubs. 

GoTyme Bank CEO Cheslyn Jacobs explained this change in a recent social media post, saying that the bank is focusing on meeting its clients where they are. 

“When we launched GoTyme Bank seven years ago, we wanted to meet customers where they already were, which meant being inside retail stores,” Jacobs said. 

This approach proved highly successful, with the bank rapidly growing its customer base to over 12 million South Africans in that time period. 

“Retail partnerships helped us make banking more accessible and more visible. But, customer behaviour doesn’t stand still, and distribution has to evolve with that behaviour,” Jacobs said. 

With the rise of digital banking and the increased popularity of banking apps, GoTyme has noticed that more of its clients are opening accounts digitally. 

This has been a trend across the banking sector, with more transactions occurring digitally and cash gradually becoming less common. 

While these trends have been heralded as the end of bank branches and ATMs, this is not the case. Banks are doubling down on their physical presence, albeit with slight changes and leveraging technology to make their infrastructure more efficient. 

“Physical access remains important for deposits, withdrawals, and when customers need to speak to a helpful human,” Jacobs said. 

As a result, GoTyme Bank is significantly adjusting its physical presence in South Africa through its Customer Experience Hubs. 

“Over the coming months, GoTyme Bank will be rebalancing parts of our physical footprint, including moving our kiosks out of Pick n Pay stores,” Jacobs said. 

“Our partnership with Pick n Pay may be changing, but our customers will continue to be able to deposit and withdraw cash at Pick n Pay tills.” 

“At the same time, we are evolving our footprint with the introduction of Customer Experience Hubs in malls across the country. The first two are already live in Rosebank Mall and Dobsonville Mall, with more to come.” 

End of bank branches in South Africa

South Africa’s biggest banks have made significant changes to their physical points of presence in recent years, as they shrink their branches and overhaul ATMs. 

The country’s banks are not shutting down branches or reducing their points of presence, but rather adapting them to better suit client needs. 

Nedbank CFO Mike Davis told Daily Investor that banks will always need a physical footprint in South Africa, particulalry if they offer a wide range of financial services. 

In some cases, this may mean the closure of full-service branches in favour of more modular alternatives or even ATMs. 

But, it is also likely to result in the opening of new branches in some locations as demand for services rises, and client behaviour evolves. 

FNB CEO Harry Kellan agreed with Davis, saying that banks with physical infrastructure have realised they will always need a physical presence if they want to be a national full-service bank. 

“We have never had a strategy to say we want to close branches or one to say we want to open branches. We have a strategy to serve our clients,” Kellan said. 

“When we open a branch or relocate a branch, it is about making sure we are present where the customers want us to be present.”

“We need to ensure that we serve communities where they are and as effectively as we can. If that means it is an agent we can have in that area, or an ATM, or a Pick n Pay kiosk, we will do it,” Kellan said. 

“If the volumes are much bigger and clients demand more sophisticated services, then we will open a branch.”

Davis explained that Nedbank is committed to maintaining its point of presence, but doing so more effectively than it has in the past. 

“If you go back over the years, you will see that every branch and every point of presence was roughly the same size and offered the same services,” Davis said.

“If we have a point of presence with a retailer like Boxer, it is manned by Nedbank staff, but it is very simple in terms of its value offering or proposition.” 

“On the other hand, if you go into Sandton City, you will see a huge branch offering everything from transactional banking to stockbroking, asset management, lending, and deposit-taking.” 

Now, bank branches across the Big Four are significantly more diverse based on client needs, with very few branches being full-service.

Some banks, such as Standard Bank, have taken the rationalisation of branch operations to the point where it now has over 62 cashless branches in South Africa.

Nearly 90% of the bank’s cash deposits are received via non-branch channels, and 97% of withdrawals are made outside its branch network.

As a result, the bank has repurposed some of its traditional branches as part of a deliberate shift towards a more efficient model.