A new era for Capitec

Capitec, South Africa’s largest bank by customers, have entered a new era with Graham Lee taking over as chief executive from co-founder Gerrie Fourie.

Fourie stepped down as Capitec chief executive officer on 19 July 2025 after leading the bank for over a decade.

Speaking at the group’s AGM, Fourie reflected on his time at the bank, with personal banking CEO Graham Lee taking over from 19 July 2025.

Capitec originated from the PSG Group’s microlending business, where the group bought SmartFin and FinAid, which had 68 microlending branches.

After some management changes at PSG in 2000, the microlending business was spun out as a subsidiary of its banking business, with Capitec established in 2001 in Stellenbosch.

The new group received large amounts of equity capital from PSG and was unbundled and listed on the JSE in 2003.

He was instrumental in growing Capitec, which started as a microlender in 2001, to South Africa’s largest bank by customer numbers with 24 million clients.

Fourie said that, looking back, the group was crazy for taking on the four traditional banks, which it has now surpassed in terms of customers.

The bank is now a fully diversified financial service provider, offering business banking, insurance products, an MVNO and digital banking capabilities.

Since unbundling from the PSG Group, the company’s headline earnings have increased from R30 million in 2003 to R13.7 billion in 2025.

The company’s clients jumped from 25,000 customers in 2003 to 24.1 million in February 2025. Fourie said the group should break 25 million customers by the end of July.

Its branch network has also increased from 266 to 880 in the 22 years, while its number of ATMs rose by 58 to close to 8,800.

He noted that a key part of Capitec’s success has been its “CEO” strategy, where everyone must act as a CEO, focusing on the client, bringing energy and taking ownership.

Graham Lee’s momentous task

Graham Lee steps into the hot seat at Capitec after a period of tremendous growth. Its share price increased by more than 200,000% since listing.

Capitec was the best-performing share on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) since the turn of the century.

Lee is expected to continue to lead the bank’s growth, and investors expect a tremendous amount from him and the company.

Capitec trades at a price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple of 29, which is much higher than all other banks in the country.

This is because shareholders and analysts view it as a technology-driven financial platform rather than just a bank. This should allow for faster growth.

Most analysts agree that Lee is the right man for the job as he has been with Capitec since 2003 and led the lender’s pivotal retail unit for the last two years.

Lee’s first task will be to grow Capitec’s business banking sector aggressively. It targets 3 million small, micro, and medium-sized enterprises across South Africa.

“It is daunting,” Lee told Bloomberg. But, he added, “the upside to both us and to South Africa with getting business banking right — it’s the single biggest opportunity.”

He is also working on growing the digital retail bank. He hopes to cross-sell more of the bank’s products to existing clients and grow its client base.