The bank’s target market is the low-to-middle-income segment.
Capitec has reported another period of significant growth, with a massive increase in headline earnings and client base.
The Stellenbosch-based lender released its financial results for the six months ended 31 August 2025 on Wednesday.
Capitec has been the leading bank by customer base for a while, and it has reported that it now serves at least 25 million clients. The bank’s target market is the low-to-middle-income segment.
“We remained true to our fundamentals and executed our strategies, growing our active client base to 25 million,’ said new CEO, Graham Lee.
Capitec’s growth
According to the interim results, the bank also has 14 million users on its banking app. Capitec prides itself on “transparent banking services, including tech-savvy customers”.
Capitec’s headline earnings grew by 26% to R8 billion. Headline earnings are a way of measuring a company’s core profit. Basically, how much money it makes from its main business activities, without the noise of unusual or one-off events.
However, the bank’s headline earnings are lower than those of other banks. For the first half of 2025, Standard Bank’s headline earnings were R24 million, while Absa’s were R11.9 billion.
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Capitec’s net interest income
Lee added that the bank’s net interest income grew by 23% driven by 40% growth in loan disbursements and a 16% increase in interest income on lending. Interest income on investments and other financial instruments increased by 4% to R4.6 billion.
Capitec generated a return on ordinary shareholders’ equity (ROE) of 31%, with the bank’s interim dividend also increased by 26% to 2,620 cents. Funeral and life cover income saw double-digit growth and increased to R1.4 billion.
Operating profit before tax increased by 26% to R10.472 billion, from R8.309 billion in the comparative period.
Smallest bank by assets
In the top five big banks, Capitec is the smallest bank by assets, worth more than R250 billion. The rest of the country’s top banks have assets worth trillions of rands.
The bank once overtook FirstRand as Africa’s most valuable bank by market capitalisation; however, FirstRand quickly claimed its number one spot.
Market capitalisation is the total value of a company’s shares on the stock market. This shows how big or valuable the market thinks the company is. It is calculated by multiplying the share price by the total number of outstanding shares.
As of midday on Wednesday, Capitec’s market capitalisation was R411 billion. FirstRand’s market capitalisation reached R434 billion, retaining its number one spot.
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