Capitec, South Africa's largest digital bank, is set to gain a second venue for investors to trade its shares — but the bigger story is what the company has become since it began as a lender 25 years ago.

On Monday, September 7, Capitec's shares will begin trading on A2X Markets, a tech-driven alternative stock exchange, after the company received approval for a secondary listing on the platform. Capitec says it will retain its primary listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), Africa's largest stock exchange. The arrangement means Capitec's shares trade on both venues simultaneously, with the JSE remaining the primary site for price discovery while A2X offers an alternative route for executing trades.

The bank believes the move gives investors an additional venue to trade its shares. It also comes as Capitec evolves beyond traditional banking into a digital platform spanning payments, connectivity, devices, insurance and financial services.

That expansion may help explain how the lender has grown into a R540 billion ($33.8 billion) business serving more than 26 million active clients. Capitec joins rival lenders Absa, Nedbank, Standard Bank and Investec, which already hold secondary listings on A2X. The alternative trading venue has grown from three listings at its launch in 2017 to more than 175 securities, using technology and lower-cost market infrastructure — a model that mirrors competition-driven exchanges elsewhere, where lower-fee venues have pressed incumbents on trading costs and spurred innovation in market microstructure.

The secondary listing is expected to broaden investor access to Capitec's ordinary shares by providing an additional regulated trading venue, enhancing shareholder choice and supporting liquidity. Grant Hardy, Chief Financial Officer (CEO) of Capitec, said the bank's issued share capital will remain unchanged.

"Our secondary listing on A2X supports our commitment to creating value for shareholders by providing access to an additional trading venue and enhanced liquidity," he stated.

Kevin Brady, A2X CEO, said the exchange's technology is central to why a company like Capitec would add another listing.

"A2X runs on the latest matching technology and passes the resulting efficiency gains on as lower fees," Brady told TechCabal in an interview. "A2X's fees are roughly 50% below the primary exchange."

Lower costs, he maintains, can attract more trading activity. Brady also pointed to trading tools such as Auction on Demand, which allows investors to initiate auctions when they need to trade, and Market at Close, which facilitates trading at the end of the session.

The listing arrives at a notable point in Capitec's evolution. Value-added services and Capitec Connect grew 38% to R6.1 billion ($377 million) in the year ended February 2026, while fintech contributed 26% of group headline earnings, according to the company's latest results.

Capitec Connect, the bank's mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), has grown to 1.5 million active clients. The company also gave customers 3 petabytes of free data worth R78 million ($4.8 million) and began selling smartphones — including Samsung and Apple devices — through its app.

That digital scale matters because it gives Capitec something many technology companies spend years trying to build: a large, active user base that can be introduced to new products without starting customer acquisition from scratch. In South Africa, where data costs have long been a barrier to digital participation for many consumers, bundling connectivity with banking gives Capitec a way to keep customers inside its ecosystem — and gives investors a metric to watch as the bank reports future results, including whether fintech's share of group earnings continues to climb beyond its current 26% and how trading volumes develop across the two exchanges.