The launch of PayShap, South Africa’s first low-value, interbank, real-time digital payments service, on March 13, 2023, marks an incredible milestone.
“Widely anticipated in the market and global payments community since its journey kicked off in 2017, we are extremely pleased to announce that PayShap is officially live,” says Mpho Sadiki, Head of Real-time Payments at BankservAfrica.
PayShap is currently available at four South African participating banks: Absa, FNB, Nedbank, and Standard Bank, with more banks expected to join in the coming months. Information may be found on the PayShap website (www.payshap.co.za).
Absa: “As a Pan-African bank, we are committed to making financial services more inclusive and accessible to our (Absa) customers. Absa’s contribution to South Africa’s payment modernisation is significant and we are extremely proud to be part of delivering yet another market-first payment solution. Importantly, Absa is delighted to be part of the first cohort of banks to roll out PayShap to our customers,” says Charl Smedley, Absa’s Managing Executive for Payments.
FNB: Ravi Shunmugam, CEO of FNB EFT Product House, says,“As a founding member of this modernised and inclusive South African payments infrastructure, we are excited to provide our FNB customers with more real time payment options. PayShap will help FNB customers transition from cash to digital and is the first of many customer solutions for real-time payments and the transformation of the payments infrastructure, aligning to our payments modernisation and digital platform strategy. We’re ecstatic to be one of the first banks in South Africa to offer PayShap to our FNB customers.”
Nedbank: “The launch of PayShap is a demonstration of the commitment by the industry as a whole to ensure accessible payment services to all South Africans. At Nedbank, we’re extremely excited to see PayShap come to fruition and the unlocks that it is set to present for enhanced payments solutions,” says Dayalan Govender, Managing Executive of Solution Innovation at Nedbank.
Standard Bank: “We at Standard Bank are proud to have worked alongside South Africa’s other leading banks to launch this game changer for SA payments. It is an incredible milestone to have reached as we deliver core collaborative infrastructure for all South Africans. Now we are looking forward to using it to give our current and prospective clients the best payment services in the world.,” says Rufaida Banoobhai, Head of Payment SA, at Standard Bank.
South African bank account customers may now effortlessly send and receive money (up to R3000 per transaction) quickly between participating banks, without providing bank account data, thanks to no waiting periods. “While the focus at launch is on person-to-person payments, every South African, including small business owners and merchants to commercial businesses, stand to benefit from this service which becomes a viable alternative to cash – from reimbursing friends or family, to paying for items on community marketplaces, hair salons, paying for home maintenance services, car washes, restaurants and transportation,” says Sadiki.
PayShap is not a standalone app and is accessed through existing banking channels only. “At launch, PayShap will be automatically accessible through bank channels such as mobile banking and internet banking. We anticipate that in the future, banks will innovate and opt to enable additional digital access channels,” says Sadiki.
PayShap will be released to the market in two stages. The first leg will see the launch of the PayShap instant clearing feature that gives the option to pay-by-account (using account details) or pay-by-proxy (using a unique identifier such as a cellphone number (ShapID). The second leg, will introduce an additional request-to-pay function which will make it possible for a person to initiate a request for payment and receive money securely and immediately in their bank account.
“We are all excited to witness the evolution of payments in South Africa that will be delivered through this next-generation digital payments service delivers,” concludes Sadiki.