Business and Technology

Capitec takes the final step in its paperless journey by launching the biometric eSignature for clients

Capitec Bank has taken the final step in its paperless journey with the introduction of an eSignature capability, by means of a biometric fingerprint.

In a time of COVID-19 and social distancing, this is a crucial move to ramp up convenience and help keep South Africans safe. Biometric readers allow for sanitization after each client’s use, while paper documents cannot be easily disinfected between parties.

Wim de Bruyn, Executive: Business Development and Technology at Capitec, said, “We’re constantly challenging the norm, helping our clients to live better through smarter, simpler banking. Our transition to paperless banking is in line with this, offering our clients improved convenience in the form of faster service times and simpler processes. We will extend this capability to facial biometrics later this year, allowing our clients to eSign documents from anywhere, 24/7 on our banking app.”

Capitec is the first South African bank to introduce a legally compliant eSignature, which means it complies with Section 13 of the South African Electronic Communications and Transactions (ECT) Act of 2002.

Biometric fingerprint

Clients will be enrolled for the new eSignature solution as they make use of a Capitec branch.

Recently, the bank announced that clients who made use of payment breaks would benefit from a 3-month 100 percent interest refund on their loans.

The interest refund will be available to all clients who have taken up Capitec’s Covid-19 payment break or rescheduling relief plan between 27 March and 30 June 2020.

To qualify for the interest reduction clients would need to honour their loan instalments after the relief period. After 6 months’ of successful loan repayments, a refund equal to 50 percent of the interest charged on the loan during the 3 months will be paid directly into the client’s loan account. After a further 6 months’ successful repayments, another 50 percent of the interest charged during the first 3 months will be refunded.

IOL