Bankserv Acquired, Old Mutual Opens Challenger Bank, Kenya Overhauls Loan Pricing

SARB has been making major moves lately. Old Mutual wants to eat Capitec’s mass market cake with their new challenger bank and Kenya is changing its loan pricing model to fit international standards. Happy weekend! Let’s get into today’s news.

Golden Nuggets

• SARB - The South African Reserve Bank - takes 50% of BankServ to modernise payment and changes name to PayInc.

• Capitec has dethroned FirstRand as the JSE's most valuable bank, surging on strong customer growth and record profits.

• OM Bank is launching in South Africa as a new digital challenger bank from Old Mutual, aiming to compete with Capitec

• Kenya overhauls its loan pricing model, linking lending rates to the interbank rate for more transparency and responsiveness.

Main Stories

SARB Takes Major Stake in PayInc (Formerly BankservAfrica) to Modernise Payments

Why it matters: The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) acquiring 50% of BankservAfrica represents a crucial step towards upgrading the country’s payment system. This partnership aims to build a faster, safer, and more inclusive payments infrastructure reaching more South Africans with affordable digital services.
Background: BankservAfrica is a clearing house and the backbone of South Africa’s payments ecosystem, processing millions of transactions daily via platforms like PayShap for instant payments. SARB’s involvement is expected to drive interoperability, reduce cash dependence, and boost financial inclusion. The initiative mirrors successful payment system upgrades globally, such as India’s UPI.
Zoom In: BankservAfrica acts like the central financial railway station where every money transaction passes through. SARB, as the national regulator, is stepping in as the government renovating the station and tracks for smoother, quicker journeys that reach underserved towns—translating to improved payments for everyday South Africans and businesses.
So what?: This public-private partnership could leapfrog South Africa’s payment tech while promoting more equitable access to digital finance. Crossing fingers.

OM Bank Enters South Africa’s Digital Banking Market

Why it matters: Old Mutual has launched OM Bank, a new licensed digital challenger bank set to compete directly with Capitec in South Africa’s crowded retail banking market. By leveraging Old Mutual’s existing customer base and a fully digital service model, OM Bank is poised to attract underserved and price-sensitive customers across South Africa.

Details: OM Bank plans to be fully operational by Q4 2025, with an initial focus on Old Mutual's money account cardholders before expanding to the wider public. The bank has invested R2.8 billion in its launch and targets breaking even by 2028 despite expected initial losses. In 2026, OM Bank aims to broaden its product offering to include lending and fixed-term savings products.

Be smart: Mass Market care about cash transactions. Watch how OM Bank capitalizes on Old Mutual’s brand strength and existing customer relationships while innovating digitally to disrupt Capitec’s marketshare. They’ll need to be more agile than they’ve ever been to pull this off. This could be a blueprint for other traditional banks who often acquire rather than develop agile solutions inhouse.

Egypt Approves First Fully Digital-Only Bank

Why it matters: Onebank aims to include millions of unbanked Egyptians by providing fully online banking without branches.
Details: Backed by Banque Misr, operations start in 2026 after final technical approval.
Zoom In: Banque Misr, one of Egypt’s oldest and largest banks founded in 1920, has ventured into digital innovation through its subsidiary Misr Digital Innovation to launch Onebank as part of Egypt’s broader financial inclusion initiatives. This move aims to address the country’s large unbanked population through a fully digital banking platform free from legacy branch infrastructure.
So what: Egypt joins the digital banking revolution sweeping Africa, with potential spillover effects in financial accessibility across the region.

Kenya Overhauls Loan Pricing with New Interbank Benchmark, KESONIA

Why it matters: Kenya’s Central Bank (CBK) has revamped how commercial banks price loans by introducing KESONIA, the Kenya Shilling Overnight Interbank Average. This overhauls the loan pricing system to introduce clarity, fairness, and better economic control. Before now, banks set their own base lending rates, often confusing borrowers and weakening the effect of interest rate changes by the central bank. The new model ties loan interest to a transparent benchmark called KESONIA, making rates clearer and more responsive to market conditions. This change aims to help borrowers understand their loan costs and encourages banks to price credit based on real risks.

If you’re new to this, here’s a clear, simple deep dive.

More Details: Under the new model, loan interest rates = KESONIA + a Premium “K” . The K is the margin and accounts for banks’ funding costs, shareholder returns, and borrower risk. Banks must publish lending rates and fees for each product on their websites and CBK’s Total Cost of Credit portal. Existing loans will transition to KESONIA by February 2026.

Zoom In: KESONIA aligns Kenya with global risk-free reference rate reforms seen in markets like the UK (SONIA) and US (SOFR). Its adoption signals Kenya’s efforts to anchor lending rates to a transparent transaction-based benchmark rather than opaque pricing models. The “lookback period” allows a lag for calculated interest to be notified to borrowers, supporting operational clarity. This change follows criticism of commercial banks’ reluctance to reduce interest rates despite several cuts to the policy rate since late 2024.

Be smart: The market’s reaction to how banks set and disclose the premium “K” will define the success of this model in ensuring fairer borrowing costs and better monetary policy effectiveness.

The Scoop

• Capitec has dethroned FirstRand as the JSE's most valuable bank, surging on strong customer growth and record profits: Bloomberg.

• AI is revolutionising corporate banking with automated loan underwriting, risk management, and workflow efficiencies: nCino.

• South Africa’s Takealot has launched a fully digital home loan platform in partnership with MortgageMarket to simplify South Africans’ journey to homeownership: Takealot.

Policy Watch

What to Watch

• Egypt’s Onebank digital bank official launch and rollout in 2026.

• Kenyan banks’ submission and regulator review of risk-based loan pricing models by Q4 2025.

• Continued AI innovation announcements from major global banking tech providers.

Toolkit

• JSE Africa Banks Index — Track market movements of leading SA banks.

• nCino AI Banking Solutions — Insights on AI in banking workflows.

• MortgageMarket Online Marketplace — South Africa's independent home loan comparison site.

• Ecofinagency — Fintech policy news across Africa.