Kganyago targets payment access and wider PayShap use
South African Reserve Bank (SARB) Governor Lesetja Kganyago set out payment reforms in Pretoria on October 20, 2026. PayShap has exceeded 1 billion transactions since 2023, but its 2025 volume was only about 6 percent of card transactions.
Opening access beyond banks
The SARB intends to publish its Authorisation Framework by November 2026, alongside a proposed Exemption Notice, opening specified payment activities to regulated non-banks.
Governance, customer-fund safeguards, resilience and reporting requirements would reflect activity risks rather than impose banking rules on firms without maturity transformation.
By March 2027, it aims to begin tackling PayShap's inconsistent customer experience, pricing, low awareness and limited merchant acceptance.
QR+, an interoperable merchant code, enters pilot testing in Q1 2027.
PEMKey, a digital identity for payments under development, would enable reusable credentials in user-controlled wallets.
Consent, correction rights and safeguards would govern identity and transaction-data reuse.
Domestic scale meets regional links
PayShap processed 507 million transactions worth R485.6 billion in 2025, versus 8.47 billion card transactions and 1.36 billion EFT credits worth R37.47 trillion.
Cash accounted for 56 percent of payments in the 2023 survey.
By late April 2027, the SARB plans to move qualifying regional payments up to R100,000 from Southern African Development Community real-time gross settlement to Transactions Cleared on an Immediate Basis (TCIB).
By October 2027, TCIB's hub-and-spoke pilot is intended to cover eight countries, reducing reliance on bilateral links.
Connectivity carries obligations
Kganyago links wider access to stronger interoperability obligations as payment networks grow.
He warns that closed systems can restrict choice and fragment liquidity.
Delivery rests on SARB regulation and settlement infrastructure alongside industry investment and competition.