Investec, a lender that focuses on high-net-worth individuals in South Africa, is expanding its business banking unit with a payments system for its corporate clients to process high-volume, low-value payments.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The lender is using the infrastructure of PayShap\u2014South Africa\u2019s new low-value, real-time rapid payments platform\u2014to build out its new banking offering, Kuben Naidoo, the bank\u2019s head of corporate payments, said in an interview. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Naidoo joined the Johannesburg-based company in June after more than a decade at the South African Reserve Bank, where his roles included that of deputy governor and head of the country\u2019s banking regulator. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Investec, which is also listed in and has operations in the UK, has been pursuing the clients of its bigger South African rivals and seeking new sources of income in recent years to offset sluggish growth in Africa\u2019s most industrialized economy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gross domestic product has expanded by an average of less than 1% over the past decade.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The firm\u2019s new offering will include person-to-business and business-to-person payment services. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It started to build a transactional banking platform about two years ago and plans to offer a full suite of payments services for corporates in 2026, Naidoo said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Consumer companies like retailers and mobile network operators as well as third-party payment providers typically process high volumes of low value transactions. The specialist bank is targeting businesses with an annual turnover of 30 million rand ($1.7 million) to 1.5 billion rand for its new payments offering, Naidoo said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Investec\u2019s share of the transactional banking market for corporates is roughly 1.2%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe other banks make about 30 billion rand a year in profits from payment services,\u201d Naidoo said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have a very small share of that, so if we were to go from 1% to 5%, for example, that\u2019s a big deal,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
PayShap, run by clearing house BankservAfrica, was initially designed to facilitate person-to-person payments, deepen financial inclusion and reduce the use of cash. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Regulators want it to mirror the success of India\u2019s Unified Payments Interface, or UPI, and Brazil\u2019s PIX, both of which allow for instant, low-cost payments using cellphone numbers and QR codes. \u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Investec is piloting a new request-to-pay feature with five corporate clients and expects to roll the service out in early February, Naidoo said without naming the companies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n