On Monday, March 13, 2023, the South African Reserve Bank (SARB), BankservAfrica, and the “big four” banks launched PayShap.
The “big four” banks, Absa, Nedbank, FNB, and Standard Bank, introduced the digital payment system today and are going live. Additional financial institutions are anticipated to join in the coming months.
PayShap will enable South African bank account holders to send and receive money (up to R3000 per transaction) instantly between participating banks without giving bank account information, owing to no waiting periods.
It’s something we have been working on for quite some time, we are bringing something to South Africa which hopefully everyone will be able to benefit from. It’s something which I think its coming at a time when our own national economy actually requires any possible aid,” said BankservAfrica Ceo, Jan Pilbauer.
It has been in the making for five years and it wasn’t done by only one bank, continued Pilbauer.
“The African proverb ‘if you want to go far go together’ applies here very much.”
Pilbauer said they are grateful for the stakeholders who have helped them on this journey, the banks of South Africa, The South African Reserve Bank, The Payment Association of South Africa and the Banks.
“When you think of a product like PayShap, we wanted it to be cashlike,” said SARS Deputy Governor, Fundi Tshazibana.
“We think collaboration is important, particularly in the area of payments as we see now. Everyone is going in the same direction, and we got to collaborate around that.
As we are digitising now, we wanted to ensure that everyone is moving along so that we get that benefit, that’s what we talking about from an inclusive point of view, added Tshazibana.
“Every South African, including small business owners and merchants to commercial businesses, stands to benefit from this system which becomes a viable alternative to cash,” said Mpho Sadiki, BankservAfrica head of Real-Time Payment.
“Payshap give us that platform to put the BankservAfrica forward in terms of what we do and our role two folds, one is what we’ve always been known for, which is a system operator,” added Sadiki.
“We anticipate that in the future, banks will innovate and opt to enable additional digital access channels.”
The banks will make sure that the money moves from one place to the other. all the parties will have to be involved, organisations like BankservAfrica move the money using electronic platforms.
Ravi Shunmugan, Ceo of FNB EFTProduct House said, “we see payshap as another payment option that will enable our customers to move away from cash transactions. i’ts easy to use and get through, it aligns with FNB.”
Dayalan Govender, Nedbank managing executive for solution innovation, Dayalan Govender stated, ” it was to be able to build trust in this economy”
We believe that this change will help our clients to understand the value and to make it easier for clients to move money, said Head of payments for South Africa at Standard Bank, Rufaida Banoobhai.
PayShap’s objectives are consistent with the company’s aim to making financial services more inclusive and accessible to its clients, stated Charl Smedley, Absa’s managing executive for payments.
