Capitec published its financial results for the year ended 28 February 2026, reporting a 22% increase in after-tax profit, from R13.7 billion to R16.8 billion.

This translated to similarly strong headline earnings attributable to ordinary shareholders, demonstrating strong compounding momentum for the bank.

It also reported a high return on equity of 31%, up from 29% last year, which highlights efficient capital allocation and profitability.

Active clients, including card machine merchants, grew by 7% year-on-year from 24.1 million to 25.8 million customers.

Capitec also announced a 23% increase in its full-year dividend per ordinary share from R65.10 to R79.80, with the full-year dividend coverage maintained at 1.8 times.

“Capitec’s evolution into a diversified financial services group reflects a deliberate strategy to deepen relationships with clients across more parts of their financial lives,” the bank stated. 

“Non-interest income remained 67% of income from operations after credit impairments, reflecting how meaningfully the Group’s earnings mix has evolved.”

Net interest income after credit impairments grew by 18% to R24.1 billion, which Capitec said was driven by product innovation and prudent credit granting.

Value-added services and Capitec Connect grew 38% from R4.4 billion to R6.1 billion, while net insurance income increased 38% to R5.2 billion.

Funeral Cover lives assured increased by 13% to 16.6 million, and Life Cover grew 129% to 221,000 lives insured. Capitec said this reflected strong demand for a simple, relevant insurance solution.

Capitec group chief executive officer Graham Lee said that their personal banking product remained the core of the business and was the platform from which everything else was launched.

“Personal Banking remains the growth engine of the group, with 25.2 million active clients — growing by 7%, and 9.9 million fully banked clients growing by 12%,” Capitec stated.

However, while personal banking was the growth engine, Capitec said its business banking services gained strong momentum.

“More entrepreneurs and small businesses responded to Capitec’s clear value proposition built on low fees, strong service and faster credit approvals,” the bank said.

“Merchant turnover through Capitec card machines reached R98.6 billion, while the scored lending book grew 118% to R3.1 billion and scored loan disbursements increased 134% to R3.2 billion.”

It said businesses and entrepreneurs grew 71% to 456,000, and its Entrepreneur Account and Pay-As-You-Trade extended this momentum.

Capitec customers going cashless

“Digital adoption continued to accelerate, with half of all payments now digital,” Capitec stated. 

“E-commerce transactions, including Capitec Pay, increased 32% to 643 million, Pay wallet transactions rose 103% to 335 million, and international and cross-border payment volumes increased 29% to 85.6 million.”

The Group’s net credit impairment charge on loans and advances increased by 21% to R9.96 billion, pushing the annualised credit loss ratio (CLR) up from 7.5% to 8.1%.

However, Lee said that this was exactly where they wanted the credit loss ratio to be, noting that the increase in annualised CLR for personal banking was less dramatic, rising from 8.1% last year.

“Increases were noted across all businesses. Business Banking’s CLR rose to 2.4% from 1.7%,” Capitec stated. It broke down the increase as follows:

• 0.2% of the increase was the result of the upfront charge on higher loan disbursements
• 0.3% was due to the growing proportion of scored unsecured loans in the loan book
• 0.2% was due to changes in the quality of the loan book

Its AvaFin business saw its CLR increase from 42.6% to 53.2%. AvaFin operates online, short-term, high-yield consumer lending businesses outside of the banking environment.

“Therefore, the CLR for AvaFin is higher than that of our other businesses,” Capitec stated.

“Longer-term products with maturities of up to 4 months were introduced in Mexico and Spain during the year to assess the markets in these countries.”

In the second half of the year, Capitec noted higher rolls into arrears for Mexico, Spain and Czechia. The higher arrears rolling through the book increased the CLR.

“As a consequence, granting criteria were tightened,” the bank said.

Doomsday scenario

Reflecting heightened global uncertainty, Capitec had to introduce a new “severe” forward-looking macroeconomic scenario with a 10% probability weighting for calculating Expected Credit Losses.

This dire scenario projects Brent crude staying above $100, the rand depreciating to R20 per U.S. dollar, and a tighter monetary policy that will result in higher inflation.

“Consequently, the SARB adopts a tighter monetary policy stance over a prolonged period, which leads to slower economic growth and places increased pressure on employment and household credit conditions.”

Looking ahead, Capitec said that in the near term, the focus remained on expanding the payments ecosystem, and deepening embedded financial solutions.

Capitec said it would also build on the momentum across Business Banking, insurance, connectivity and digital services.

“Our fundamentals have not changed in 25 years, and they will not change in the next 25,” said Lee.

“We will continue to protect the trust our clients place in us, make banking simpler and more affordable, and ensure that our growth delivers more value to the people we serve.”

Capitec results in five slides