Old Mutual’s OM Bank has amassed over 140,000 active customers since it began testing its mobile app earlier this year, and is adding around 5,000 new users each day.
South Africa’s newest bank is targeting people earning between R8,000 and R80,000 per month. That is the same as the majority of Capitec’s user base, South Africa’s largest bank by customers.
The bank first began trialling its mobile apps with employees and a handful of customers in April 2025. In the months, it gradually increased its customer base on an invite-only basis.
In August 2025, it soft-launched to the general public, allowing any person with its Android and iPhone mobile apps to sign up for an account. The bank plans to officially launch publicly later this month.
OM Bank recently outlined its goals for the near future and its strategy for becoming profitable during a presentation at Capital Markets Day 2025.
The bank expects it will need to reach between 2.5 million and 2.8 million customers to achieve monthly break-even, which it plans to do by its 2028 financial year.
Until that time, it estimates it will be losing between R1.1 billion and R1.3 billion annually. Those operating losses will add to the R2.8 billion already spent on building the bank.
The bank is well-positioned to become a money-spinner due to its parent, Old Mutual, which has over seven million customers on file with insurance and financial products that OM Bank could tap into.
The bank believes it can bring 500,000 of the 770,000 Old Mutual Money Account users into its fold. In addition, it is aiming to onboard another one million existing Old Mutual Finance customers.
If it gets roughly 1.5 million customers from Old Mutual’s other products, only a further 1.16 million not currently linked to any of Old Mutual’s products will be required to reach break-even.
Source: MyBroadband
