Bank Zero, a digital-only South African bank co-founded by former FNB chief executive Michael Jordaan, has begun alpha testing its app after securing a mutual banking license.
The bank, which is more than 45% black-owned and 20% women-owned, is planning to enter beta testing during the first quarter of 2019 before opening up fully to the public by the middle of the year.
It has already integrated with the South African Reserve Bank national payments systems and has signed up with Mastercard on a security-focused card. Meanwhile, the bank and its "revolutionary" new core platform are being hosted on IBM's open-source based LinuxONE enterprise server.
Yatin Narsai, co-founder and CEO, says: "Sweat equity is our single largest investment and leverages off a combined 250-plus years of detailed ‘know-how’. Experiencing a coming together of such experts in the context of modern agile interpretations is a great privilege.”