20Twenty (bank)

It was founded in July 2001 by South African internet entrepreneur Christo Davel. Due to the length of time and complicated bureaucratic process of setting up a bank in South Africa the company entered into a partnership with existing South African bank Saambou to use their banking license.

In the agreement Saambou obtained a 65% share in the company. It initially only offered customers a single account that was a combined current account and savings account and issued a single Master-Card that functioned as a credit and debit card.^[5] Shortly after the bank's launch its parent bank Saambou collapsed in 2002 resulting in the freezing of 20Twenty accounts.^[3]

After 18 months of negotiations 20Twenty was sold to Standard Chartered for US$10 million (R61 million) in August 2003.^[3] In November 2005 Standard Chartered put the bank up for sale.^[6] Two months later in January 2006 Standard Charted announced that it would be closing 20Twenty after failing to find a buyer.^[3]