Payment News

South Africa Considers its Own Card and Payment System

As part of its National Payment System, the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) is considering a new domestic card and payment system and has issued a consultation paper.

SARB suggests a domestic card scheme, rather than Visa and Mastercard’s, would help the unbanked market and provide strong competition. Currently Visa and Mastercard have about 48.8 million cards in circulation in South Africa with 5.6 billion transactions annually, with volumes growing strongly, 16.2% between 2018 and 2019.

SARB’s paper is only considering a domestic scheme with fees charged in line with transaction flows across the network. Fees for a domestic only scheme should be lower than if it is international. Other countries, for example Norway, have taken a similar approach.