Bank Zero
South African digital bank
Bank Zero is a South African digital mutual bank. Headquartered in Sandton, Gauteng, the bank provides commercial and corporate financial services. Bank Zero registered with the South African Reserve Bank in 2018, and launched in 2021.
01History
Bank Zero was co-founded in 2018, by Michael Jordaan and Yatin Narsai. By the end of 2018, after integration with the South African Reserve Bank, Bank Zero was a full settlement bank.
In early 2019, Bank Zero integrated into the rest of the South African national payments system to become a full clearing bank with an independent licence.
In November 2019, Bank Zero announced a patented debit card, obtained with an agreement with MasterCard, and combined with Bank Zero's in-house, patented security procedures. Instead of storing the card number that is embossed on the card on both the magnetic stripe, and in the card chip, the debit card would have three different card numbers for each: the embossed number, the magnetic strip, and the card chip.
Doing so would allow Bank Zero to limit specific types of transactions to each card number. For example, the magnetic strip card number could only be used at an ATM and at a point-of-sale terminal; the card chip card number could only be used at point-of-sale devices; and, the embossed number could only be used for online transactions. The bank said the new card would dramatically minimize the negative impact of card data theft and card skimming.
While Bank Zero had originally planned to soft launch some of its products at the end of 2019, the company decided to delay its launch to 2020. After disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the bank's launch was further delayed, until 2021.
In June 2025, Lesaka Technologies (formerly Net1 UEPS Technologies) announced that it had signed a deal to acquire Bank Zero for R1.091 billion, pending regulatory approvals. This received approval from the South African Competition Commission in late 2025.
In June 2026, it was reported that the acquisition had been delayed, pending remaining regulatory approvals. The deal's deadline was extended to 31 January 2027.
02Operations
The bank is 45% black-owned and 20% female-owned. Instead of outsourcing traditional pre-ready banking packages, Bank Zero relies on a core banking platform.
Bank Zero uses IBM Z mainframe computers and LinuxONE, as a secure platform that can protect against data breaches with IBM's Secure Service Container.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Bank Zero”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Bank Zero South Africa logo 2019.png by Unknown author, Fair use
Fathomly is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Wikimedia Foundation. Spotted a problem? Tell us.