Sanlam customers are about to get a new banking option
CAPE TOWN — Sanlam will begin rolling out transactional banking services from 1 November, promising customers lower fees and better deposit rates as one of South Africa’s biggest financial services groups moves deeper into a banking market already being disrupted by new competitors.
The insurer has received regulatory approval for the offering and will initially make it available to employees, intermediaries and selected customers before a wider rollout during the first quarter of 2027.
But Sanlam is taking a different route from rivals that have established their own banks.
Rather than building the underlying banking operation itself, Sanlam will use an agreement with GoTyme Bank, the digital lender backed by billionaire Patrice Motsepe, to provide the banking infrastructure while Sanlam distributes products to its customers. The arrangement will include deposit taking, unsecured personal loans and life cover, with the companies sharing profits.
Sanlam CEO Paul Hanratty said the company believes it can offer its existing customers substantially lower fees and more competitive deposit rates.
The strategy gives Sanlam a potentially significant advantage before the service even launches: an established customer base already using its insurance, investment and other financial products.
Sanlam previously said its millions of customers, together with the large volumes of premiums it collects and claims it pays, presented an opportunity to bring more of those financial transactions onto its own platform.
The November introduction will effectively serve as a controlled test. Sanlam plans to assess the technology and customer experience before expanding access nationally, with Apple Pay functionality among the remaining deliverables ahead of the broader rollout.
The move adds another major competitor to a South African banking sector undergoing significant change.
Old Mutual launched OM Bank in 2025 and had accumulated 742,000 customers by June 2026, according to figures reported by Bloomberg. Discovery Bank, launched in 2019, has meanwhile recorded its first full year profit.
Other challengers are also coming. Pepkor has regulatory approval to develop an independent bank supported by its network of more than 2,500 PEP stores, while international digital bank Revolut has applied for a South African banking licence.
For Sanlam, the immediate challenge will be convincing customers who already have established banking relationships to move at least part of their everyday finances onto its platform.
Hanratty acknowledges that customers may retain their existing private or traditional bank accounts while using Sanlam for particular services such as deposits.
That means the battle beginning in November may not initially be about persuading South Africans to abandon their banks. It will be about whether Sanlam can use its enormous existing financial services relationship with customers to take a growing share of what they currently do with those banks.
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