TymeBank has partnered with South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs to enable Smart ID and passport applications through the bank’s network, adding a digital-first player to the state’s expanding bank partnership model. Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber confirmed TymeBank is the eighth bank to join the initiative, aimed at taking services to “hundreds more locations” and eventually into banking apps. TymeBank says the collaboration will boost secure access for its more than 11 million customers while supporting the DHA’s modernization drive.
Background
The DHA has been recruiting banks since April 2025 to shift from a limited pilot to a national, digital-first rollout of core civic services. Recent commitments by Capitec, FNB, Absa, Standard Bank, Nedbank and African Bank set the stage, with Discovery Bank already offering limited services via its head office. TymeBank’s entry leaves Investec as the only bank yet to respond to the minister’s invitation to partner.
Reach and Access
As a digital-only institution, TymeBank will lean on its retail kiosk footprint rather than traditional branches for scale. The bank operates roughly 1,450 points of presence inside Pick n Pay, Boxer and Foschini Group stores, giving the DHA a ready-made retail distribution layer. Officials and the bank frame the move as inclusionary, focused on remote and underserved communities that struggle to reach DHA sites.
Pilot and Rollout
The program starts with a test-and-learn phase at TymeBank’s Johannesburg head office to validate systems, user flows and service integrity. TymeBank says customers will be notified as services go live at nearby locations, then progressively expanded nationwide. Discovery Bank, meanwhile, continues to offer services at its head office and has not yet detailed a broader rollout under the new model.
How It Works
The shift is enabled by the DHA’s overhauled “live capture” system and back-end upgrades that integrate directly with participating banks. Branches or kiosks will capture photos, IDs and biometrics, verify them in real time against DHA records, and arrange collection of Smart IDs at the same location within weeks. This replaces the decade-old pilot in which only 30 branches hosted satellite DHA offices running parallel systems.
Scale Targets
Authorities plan to add 100 more bank locations by year-end and reach about 1,000 branches by the 2028/29 financial year under the new model. A compiled rollout tally indicates roughly 150 additional sites may be operating by March 2026, with at least 840 more to follow longer term, excluding TymeBank’s yet-to-be-counted contribution. The DHA expects the banks’ eventual app integrations to push services fully digital once the foundations are stable.
Industry Alignment
Schreiber argues that South Africa’s leadership in digital financial services should translate into better state service delivery, calling the initiative “pro-poor and inclusive.” TymeBank CEO Karl Westvig positions the tie-up as a continuation of the bank’s secure, technology-driven approach to widening access to essential services. Both parties frame the partnership as a pragmatic blend of public infrastructure and private rails to accelerate identity issuance.
TymeBank’s entry materially widens the distribution and digital integration path for Smart ID and passport services, moving the DHA from a constrained pilot to a scalable retail and app-enabled model. If execution matches the plan, the combination of live capture, real-time verification, and retail kiosks should compress friction for millions while lifting throughput. The immediate pilot in Johannesburg will be the proving ground before the system rolls out at scale across the country.