South Africa

Capitec overtook Standard Bank by retail customer count in October 2025

Capitec reached 22.4m banked customers by end-2024 and crossed Standard Bank's South African retail base in October 2025 — a structural shift in a market where the same five banks have set the perimeter for two decades. The model (low-fee transaction banking, USSD-first, branch-light) has proved more portable to the township and informal-economy segment than incumbent attempts. The next test is whether Capitec's lead translates into corresponding share of PayShap and DebiCheck flow volume, which still indexes more heavily to FirstRand and Standard.

SARB took 50% of BankservAfrica — the operator becomes National Payment Utility

SARB officially became 50% co-owner of PayInc (the rebranded BankservAfrica) in May 2026, transitioning the operator toward a centralised National Payment Utility (NPU) for open digital-payments infrastructure. The change moves South African payments governance closer to the BCB-Pix or RBI-NPCI model where the central bank owns the rail rather than overseeing a bank consortium; it also opens the rulebook to non-bank PSP participation in a way that the 1998 NPS Act did not contemplate.

SADC outbound corridors remain among the world's most expensive at 8-10%

Intra-CMA transfers (to Lesotho, Namibia, Eswatini) are effectively at-par; but South Africa-to-Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi outbound corridors price at 8-10% — among the highest globally. Mukuru, Hello Paisa and Shoprite Money Market dominate cash-to-cash; SADC has not replicated the EU cross-border regulation model, and SARB's Financial Surveillance Department reforms have eased outbound allowance limits without restructuring the corridor itself. The persistent pricing gap is the structural opening.

SARB/BankservAfrica's proxy-ID instant rail hit 200m T12M transactions by February 2026 (+67% YoY); all major banks enrolled. The 2026 roadmap covers request-to-pay, bulk-payments and cross-border to CMA member states (Lesotho, Namibia, Eswatini) — the first will reshape merchant collections, the second SME payroll, the third the first instant cross-border corridor in Sub-Saharan Africa. Operators that build PayShap aliases, refund flows and dispute primitives into ISV stacks ahead of the bulk go-live capture the merchant volume.

National Treasury and SARB released the revised NPS Bill for consultation in 2024; the rewrite overhauls the 1998 Act, formalises non-bank PSP licensing and ends bank-only access to the settlement system. Direct settlement access for licensed non-bank PSPs is the most consequential payments reform in two decades; ISVs, BNPL operators and acquirer-PSP combinations gain operating leverage that has historically required a banking partner. PSP licensing applications open on Bill enactment.

SARB's Financial Surveillance Department relaxed the 2024 exchange-control framework and increased individual outbound allowances; the residual regime is reporting-based rather than approval-based. Stitch, Yoco, Peach Payments and the cross-border entrants (Stripe ZA, Revolut ZAR support, Wise) have operating room they did not have two years ago. The Common Monetary Area corridor remains fully intra-rail; the opening is in formalising what had been informal cross-border SME flows.