Michiel Le Roux's Capitec blocked $43 million in fraud losses using AI that scores every payment in real time

Capitec blocked $43 million (R699 million) in potential fraud losses for more than 113,000 clients in the year to June 2026, the South African retail bank has revealed, as it disclosed a suite of eight artificial intelligence tools it has deployed to intercept financial crime before money leaves customers' accounts.

The figures, released by Michiel Le Roux's Capitec, South Africa's largest retail bank by active clients, show the scale of the fraud threat facing the country's banking system. Over the same period, Capitec blocked more than 131,000 suspicious beneficiary accounts, including 64,000 so-called mule accounts used to move stolen funds, and warned clients about more than 394,000 potentially fraudulent payments.

How the screening works

At the core of Capitec's fraud defence is an intelligent payment screening system that scores every electronic funds transfer beneficiary in real time before a payment leaves a client's account. Where other Capitec clients have previously reported a payment beneficiary, that information is aggregated into a risk rating that is displayed to the sender before the transaction is processed.

"Our purpose has always been to make banking work for as many South Africans as possible," said Blessing Mgaga, executive head of Group Risk Enablement and Client Integrity at Capitec. "Every transaction is a signal of what clients value, and we want to keep building solutions that reflect what people actually need."

Eight tools fighting financial crime

Capitec has deployed eight specific innovations as part of its fraud defence architecture.

The Secret Safe allows clients to hide accounts from the app entirely, removing all access and visibility. A hidden account can only be unlocked at a Capitec branch, meaning no remote access is possible even if a phone is stolen. Since launching one month ago, 75,000 accounts have been secured through the feature.

The Malware Detection tool scans clients' phones for software designed to intercept banking credentials. When suspicious applications are identified, the tool alerts the client and provides removal guidance before any harm occurs.

Trusted Approver, currently in development, will allow clients to nominate a trusted person to approve payments before money leaves the account. The approver has 12 hours to approve or decline via the Capitec app and can also pause the client's app and freeze their cards if needed.

Graph Analytics technology maps criminal networks by connecting banking transactions, communications and other data points. When a targeted victim is identified, Capitec warns the client they are communicating with fraudsters and intercepts any payment before it is processed.

The Scam Scanner uses AI to help clients verify the legitimacy of suspicious text messages and links received on their devices. The feature will be available on the Capitec app in the coming weeks.

Capitec Pulse provides branch consultants with real-time contextual information about a client's situation the moment they make contact through the app, enabling consultants to identify fraudulent transactions and unauthorized access instantaneously.

Capitec Neo AI analyses real-time signals across the bank to detect anomalies, suspicious patterns and emerging threats across thousands of daily transactions, disrupting fraud at source rather than responding after the fact.

Capitec AI Donna accelerates anti-money laundering investigations by intelligently summarising critical information for specialist agents, enabling faster identification of suspicious activity and quicker disruption of financial crime flows.

The broader threat

"Financial crime is sophisticated and it moves fast," Mgaga said. "We are always looking to build solutions that will disrupt the negative fraud flow and pace, using advanced fraud-detection models, cloud-based verification tools and behavioural analytics to keep clients safe."

The disclosures come as South African banks face escalating fraud pressure across all digital channels. Phishing, social engineering, SIM swapping and investment scams have all grown in sophistication as criminal networks have adopted AI tools of their own to target banking customers at scale.

Capitec's 26 million active clients make it both the largest target and the institution with the most data to train fraud detection systems on, a structural advantage that Le Roux's bank has increasingly leaned into as competition for South Africa's retail banking market intensifies.