A total of 203 bank branches are offering home affairs services, with more than 250,000 people having used the digital offering to obtain a Smart ID replacement card since early March. Previously 248 home affairs offices and 32 bank branches offered Smart ID replacement services. The expansion of the bank offering has accelerated efforts to replace the vulnerable green ID Book, which about 16-million South Africans continue to use and which is prone to fraud and identity theft. The 203 branches that are now live include 109 Capitec branches, 74 Standard Bank branches and 20 FNB branches. Applications for Smart ID replacements at these branches involve a fully biometric process that requires no paperwork and no prior booking and leaves no room for discretion. Home affairs minister Leon Schreiber said in a media statement the Smart ID replacement service would be expanded to 750 branches by the end of this year, and first-time Smart ID applications, passport applications and home delivery services would be added to all the bank branches. Business Day