Cheslyn Jacobs, TymeBank chief commercial officer.
TymeBank has warned that a proposed increase in biometric verification fees, from 15c to R10, could result in the financial exclusion of its low-income clients, particularly grant recipients, from formal banking.
This, after the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) yesterday rolled out its new National Population Register (NPR). This system introduces a 6 500% increase in the cost of a biometric check, used to validate identity for new bank accounts.
TymeBank states it cannot absorb this cost and will pass it on to customers.
Currently, the branchless digital bank covers the R55 cost to open its EveryDay Account, which includes know-your-customer checks, digital onboarding and card issuance.
TymeBank chief commercial officer Cheslyn Jacobs explains this cost would rise by R20 per customer. He calculates that onboarding one million Social Relief of Distress (SRD) customers would result in it incurring R20 million in DHA verification costs alone.
“This would make it unsustainable to serve the very people financial inclusion aims to help,” Jacobs states in the bank’s latest missive to try persuade home affairs minister Dr Leon Schreiber to reverse the decision to increase the charge.
TymeBank did not disclose the number of grant recipients among its 11 million customers.
As the bank would be forced to pass on the additional R20 in costs to open a bank account, this would burden those living below the breadline. Jacobs says such a sharp “increase, driven entirely by the DHA verification cost, adds financial strain to a segment already served at a loss, making financial inclusion significantly harder to sustain”.
Schreiber previously criticised TymeBank in response to an open letter the bank published on 24 June, in which it argued that the additional cost was unsustainable. The minister accused TymeBank of profiting at the state’s expense and undermining national security, stating: “Take your faux outrage somewhere else and stop putting profiteering over people!”
In a recent post on X, Schreiber said the department “is delivering major upgrades to the NPR to combat system offline failures and enhance national security. We work for all the people, not for vested interests!” He has also said “in rebuilding the NPR, home affairs is putting the people over shameless profiteering”.
TymeBank’s six-year-old model allows instant account opening via a biometric check against the digitised NPR.
Jacobs highlights that this solution eliminates the need for many customers to repeatedly borrow transport money to return to a bank. This is crucial, he notes, as the alternative is an overnight batch-processing check at R1.
Jacobs argues that requiring repeat bank visits is “a significant barrier for someone who had to borrow taxi fare to get there in the first place”.
He warns that “without accessible, affordable banking, SRD recipients will return to informal, cash-based systems. They’ll face higher costs, greater risk and have no way to build a financial track record – blocking access to credit, savings and upward mobility. The long-term result? Entrenched inequality and systemic exclusion.”
The biometric lookup fee increase, Jacobs cautions, extends beyond TymeBank. It will impact other essential services, including insurers confirming identities for claims and policies, mobile network operators for RICA, and credit bureaus and lenders for credit applications.
Currently, approximately 28 million people receive grants. As of April, these monthly grant amounts are:
Social Relief of Distress: R370 (introduced during COVID-19 for those unable to meet daily needs, subsequently extended)
Child Support Grant: R560
Older Persons and Disability Grants: R2 180 (those over 75 receive an additional R10)
Care Dependency Grant: R2 180
Grant in Aid (for those requiring regular assistance with daily living activities): R650
For context, the average cost of a food basket is R5 443, according to a monthly survey by the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice & Dignity Group. ITWeb’s calculations show that if all grant recipients absorbed an additional R20, the total increase across all recipients would be R560 million.
