The Competition Commission has recommended that the Competition Tribunal approve the South African Reserve Bank’s proposed acquisition of a 50% stake in BankservAfrica – and has done so without attaching any conditions.
The transaction will see the central bank take the ownership stake in the payments clearing house, which plays a critical role in processing interbank transactions. BankservAfrica is currently fully owned by South Africa’s commercial banks, led by Absa, FirstRand, Nedbank and Standard Bank.
The commission found that the deal is unlikely to substantially lessen competition in any market and raises no significant public interest concerns.
The Reserve Bank oversees South Africa’s National Payment System (NPS), which underpins every step of the payments chain, from card swipes to final interbank settlement in the central bank’s books.
BankservAfrica, meanwhile, operates as a payment clearing house system operator. It delivers clearing and settlement services to South African banks and other financial institutions, with systems that enable interbank switching, clearing and settlement. Through its subsidiary, Automated Clearing Bureau Investments Johannesburg, it manages infrastructure that keeps the country’s payments ecosystem functioning.
By taking sole control of BankservAfrica, the Reserve Bank hopes to strengthen its role in securing and managing the integrity of the NPS.
The plan was first announced last November, with BankservAfrica saying at the time that the transaction was intended to “transition the company into a national payments utility through a collaboration with commercial bank shareholders”.
PayShap
The plan is designed to “bolster efforts to modernise South Africa’s National Payment System, making the payment system more secure, inclusive and efficient”, it said then.
“This consequential partnership between the company, its commercial bank shareholders and the Reserve Bank signifies both a continuation and expansion of that role as we focus more deliberately on financial inclusion through affordable access to modern payment capabilities,” BankservAfrica added.
Read: QR code payments are coming to PayShap
“A foundational offering of the envisioned payments utility is PayShap, a service launched by BankservAfrica in March 2023 that allows South Africans to make instant payments.” — © 2025 NewsCentral Media
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- This article previously stated that the Reserve Bank was buying 100% of BankservAfrica. The correct figure is 50%. The error is regretted
