Sanlam Life, Sanlam Personal Loans Proprietary Limited SPL and TymeBank have agreed to establish a joint venture that will offer South Africans unsecured personal loans with an embedded credit life offering .
Sanlams Board revealed the agreement in a SENS announcement on Wednesday 21 May.
TymeBank and Sanlam partner for personal loansSPL and TymeBank have complementary customer bases and skillsets, promising excellent growth opportunities, Sanlam said.
Sanlam and TymeBank will jointly develop a new lending capability on TymeBank's infrastructure.
As a digital bank, TymeBank has extensive expertise and capabilities in the development of technological solutions and digital strategies used in the banking and lending sectors.
SPL currently provides unsecured personal loans ranging from R5,000 to R300,000, with repayment terms of 12 months to 6 years at a fixed interest rate. Its loan book size was R5 billion as of 31 December 2024.
TymeBank similarly offers unsecured personal loans of up to R200,000. It has also partnered with TFG Money for loans of up to R20,000. Its other credit offering is the buy now, pay later MoreTyme product.
The banks parent company is ultimately controlled by Ubuntu-Botho Investments Proprietary Limited, which is Sanlam's strategic empowerment partner.
As a fully digital bank, it does not have any physical branches. Customers transact via its banking app, internet banking and national network of over 800 self-service kiosks. It currently has 11 million retail and business customers.
TymeBank has a robust IT infrastructure as well as bank-grade fraud and anti-money laundering capabilities to support and enhance the credit strategy of the joint venture, Sanlam said.