A new payment platform called Payshap has launched in South Africa. Payshap is backed by the South Arica Reserve Bank and local banks and allows South Africans to transfer money instantly between their phones, without a bank account.
Users will be able to send money using vouchers and PIN codes, and recipients won’t have to cash out that money first to perform another transaction. Payshap will also allow customers to make payments from their new balance to other people.
The payments will focus on smaller transactions and will be cheaper than current instant money transfers between banks.
About Payshap
Payshap was designed by BankservAfrica, an automated clearing house that is owned by the banks. For now, only the “big four” banks (Standard Bank, ABSA, FirstRand, and Nedbank) will offer Payshap wallets.
The service will be rolled out in two stages. The first stage will see the launch of the instant interbank clearing feature, allowing people to make payments to bank accounts or cellphone numbers.
The second stage will introduce a request-to-pay function which makes it possible for a person to request payment and receive it immediately in their bank account.
