Standard Bank sacks 82 employees over ghost MyMo account
Johannesburg, 23 Feb 2023
Standard Bank has sacked 82 employees for tampering with MyMo digital accounts and inappropriately activating accounts in the names of customers without their consent.
The bank yesterday confirmed the firing of the employees, saying Standard Bank’s investigation into the scheme is drawing to a close.
Standard Bank probed more than 200 employees on the matter, after it emerged that at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, some staffers activated phantom accounts to reach performance targets.
The bank yesterday said no clients suffered financial losses and it thanked employees who blew the whistle on the matter, prompting the probe.
“The investigation included a conduct and culture review; 82 employees have been dismissed and eight are going through a disciplinary enquiry. The number of accounts impacted was below 0.1% of the MyMo account base,” says Ross Linstrom, Standard Bank spokesperson.
“These were real customer accounts that were fully KYC’d. No clients suffered financial losses. We thank the valuable employees who raised the issue via a trusted internal process. Our independent whistle-blower platform has proved to be trusted and reliable.”
Standard Bank launched MyMo in 2019. Customers can open a MyMo low-cost bank account using a mobile device by taking a selfie.
Their identity is verified using the selfie, which is checked via the Department of Home Affairs’ database.
The transactional bank account has a base fee of R5.95/month and comes with a SIM card and free airtime or data.
At the unveiling, Funeka Montjane, then Standard Bank chief executive for personal and business banking, told ITWeb it was the bank’s first “fully-digitally on-boarded product”.
She explained: “If you are an existing customer, you can already get a digital loan, etc, but to join the bank, up until now you had to go into a branch. So, this is our first fully-digitally launched account and it’s going to be available through the app on Android and iOS and on the website.
“Mobile is the new branch. This account is about bringing the mobile branch into customers’ hands; it is about convenience and security while banking.”
