{"id":168755,"date":"2017-04-06T09:33:23","date_gmt":"2017-04-06T07:33:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=168755"},"modified":"2017-04-06T09:33:23","modified_gmt":"2017-04-06T07:33:23","slug":"new-sa-credit-card-will-allow-users-to-customise-transactions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/banking\/168755\/new-sa-credit-card-will-allow-users-to-customise-transactions\/","title":{"rendered":"New SA credit card will allow users to customise transactions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Root<\/strong><\/a>, in partnership with Standard Bank, will soon launch a lightweight bank account which comes with a programmable credit card, online banking interface, mobile app, and APIs.<\/p>\n

Root is an OfferZen<\/strong><\/a> project, with Standard Bank providing the underlying banking service and the regulatory framework.<\/p>\n

Root was co-founded by Louw Hopley, an entrepreneur who previously launched an iPhone app development company operating between New York and Silicon Valley.<\/p>\n

He returned to South Africa to start Root, with the aim of eliminating the barrier to entry for innovation in the financial sector.<\/p>\n

A Root account enables any software developer to build a fintech product without special access to the banking world.<\/p>\n

\u201cDevelopers are able to create solutions to problems in almost any industry, but are severely limited in the fintech space by massive starting costs and barriers to entry,\u201d\u00a0said Malan Joubert, co-founder of OfferZen.<\/p>\n

\u201cRoot is our experiment to change that fundamentally.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is like a 24\/7\/365 hackathon that allows any developer to build life-enabling apps or solutions,\u201d said John Campbell, Head: Standard Bank EDGE.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of relying only on people who work for Standard Bank, we are giving any developer the power to create opportunities or solve problems they experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Root account and RootCode<\/h3>\n

At the centre of the account is the Root credit card, which is developer friendly and allows a user to write code that interacts with transactions in real-time.<\/p>\n

The code, dubbed RootCode, is securely stored in the cloud by Root.<\/p>\n

Through RootCode and other APIs to the bank account, users can build any feature they like and integrate it with other services to expand their account\u2019s functionality.<\/p>\n

As an example of what can be done, Root beta users have written many RootCode apps. These include:<\/p>\n