South Africa’s newest lender, OM Bank, is seeking to become a preferred lender as banks and insurers increasingly converge. The unit of Old Mutual Ltd., Africa’s largest insurer by assets, enters a market with five of the continent’s top banks and leading insurers.

“The biggest driver of this entry was the convergence that was taking place in the market between banks and insurance,” Chief Executive Officer Clarence Nethengwe said. “Many of the banks were getting into insurance — they were setting up their insurance divisions and we felt that from a competitiveness perspective, we had to get into banking ourselves.”

The lender faces an uphill climb, with 81% of South Africans already holding an account. The traditional big-four banks — Standard Bank Group Ltd., First Rand Ltd., Absa Group Ltd., and Nedbank Group Ltd. — have about 83% of South Africa’s 5.8 trillion rand ($360 billion) in banking assets. They are expected to post combined headline earnings surpassing 139 billion rand by the end of 2026, according to S&P Global.

OM Bank started in August 2025 and has attracted nearly 4,500 customers daily in the eight months to August, lifting clients to 1 million by September. It plans to focus on clients earning between 15,000 rand to 50,000 rand monthly and ramp up to 2.8 million customers by 2028.