“Can a 180-year-old African life insurer transform into an integrated pan-African digital bank and financial services group?”
Founded 1845 as South Africa's first life insurance mutual, Old Mutual has spent the last decade building beyond life insurance and asset management into full-service banking. The 2016 partnership with 10x Banking culminated in a $135M+ investment and the 2025 launch of OM Bank — a cloud-native digital bank — converting Money Account holders to a regulated bank. In parallel, the SMEgo platform aggregates SME services (funding marketplace, payroll, accounting, insurance) positioning Old Mutual as an integrated financial services group rather than a pure insurer.
Old Mutual discloses 10x Banking (core banking platform) as its banking provider, with OM Bank (in-house) as its sponsor bank, according to the Embedded Finance Index 2026.
Old Mutual does not disclose a bank charter of its own; its banking services are provided through OM Bank (in-house).
Old Mutual processes payments through Paystack (Old Mutual Kenya).
Old Mutual's lending and capital products are provided by SMEgo (in-house marketplace to multiple funders).
Old Mutual runs its ledger on 10x Banking (cloud-native core).
Old Mutual's payroll is powered by SMEgo Payroll (in-house).
Old Mutual integrates with SMEgo Accounting module.
The Embedded Finance Index 2026 maps 7 layers in Old Mutual's stack: Payments / PSP (Paystack (Old Mutual Kenya)); Banking / BaaS (10x Banking (core banking platform)); Ledger (10x Banking (cloud-native core)); Lending (SMEgo (in-house marketplace to multiple funders), SMEgo Business Funding (R50,000 to R50 million via partner funders), Old Mutual Investment Backed Loan (lending against Private Clients Discretionary Portfolio) and Old Mutual Wealth lending solutions); Payroll (SMEgo Payroll (in-house)); Sponsor bank (OM Bank (in-house)); Accounting (SMEgo Accounting module).
Old Mutual is founded in 1845 and headquartered in Cape Town, South Africa.
Get a read on where your own stack stands against Old Mutual and the rest of its category — what they built versus bought, which providers they use, and where the gaps in your own strategy and competitive set actually are.