{"id":846476,"date":"2025-12-15T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=846476"},"modified":"2025-12-15T10:13:53","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T08:13:53","slug":"goodbye-cash-and-atms-as-you-know-them-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/846476\/goodbye-cash-and-atms-as-you-know-them-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Goodbye cash and ATMs as you know them in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africa\u2019s central bank plans the biggest overhaul of the nation\u2019s cash system in decades, moving to create a cash-management company, roll out white-label ATMs and tighten oversight of how money circulates to make it cheaper and easier to access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cash moving through Africa\u2019s biggest economy tops R180 billion, or 2.5% of gross domestic product, and accounts for about two-thirds of all transaction volumes even as digital payments grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Managing, transporting and securing physical money cost about R90 billion last year, a burden shouldered by consumers. Crime accounts for 13% of that.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The so-called Cash Smart Strategy aims to ensure physical funds remain accessible for low-income and rural communities that have limited digital-payment options and often face costs as much as five times higher than wealthier urban users. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reforms \u2014 likely to be the largest change in how cash is circulated since ATMs were\u00a0introduced<\/a>\u00a0more than 40 years ago \u2014 are intended to ease that burden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The central bank expects cash usage to drop by 30% to 40% when the nation reaches digitisation levels comparable to India, Brazil and the European Union.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very radical transformation of the industry,\u201d Pradeep Maharaj, the head of the South African Reserve Bank\u2019s Payments Ecosystem Modernisation Programme, said in an interview.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key to the proposed strategy is establishing a cash utility co-owned by entities including banks and retailers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company would mirror the Netherlands\u2019 Geldmaat \u2014 a joint venture between ABN AMRO Bank NV, ING Groep NV and Rabobank NV that operates a unified ATM network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The utility would model cash demand and distribute it accordingly, removing the R480 million indirect subsidy currently received by a few private companies that hold and circulate physical money on the central bank\u2019s behalf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Worthwhile Shake-Up\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

ATMs, which are mostly owned and operated by lenders such as Capitec Bank Holdings Ltd. and FirstRand Ltd., would be rolled into the company and converted to white-label facilities that any bank\u2019s customers can use at little or no cost. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019ll be complete interoperability, and therefore we\u2019d be able to reduce the fees to almost zero,\u201d Maharaj said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the changes may affect commercial bank revenue, \u201cwe hope that doing this would reduce the costs they incur by even more and make up for that,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The strategy won\u2019t \u201ccome without cost, but it will be a worthwhile shake-up if we can make cash cheaper, more accessible and safer,\u201d said Jannie Rossouw, an honorary professor at the University of the Witwatersrand\u2019s business school.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Declining cash in circulation would also weigh on the central bank\u2019s seigniorage income, or the interest it earns on deposits placed with it in exchange for notes, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The central bank is also considering extending cash regulations beyond lenders and may introduce operating licenses for cash-in-transit companies, retailers and some payment-service providers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A draft regulatory framework is expected early next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Reserve Bank further plans to engage major grocers including Shoprite Holdings Ltd. and Pick n Pay Stores Ltd. \u2014 which recycle as much as R100 billion in cash a year \u2014 about taking stakes in the planned utility and operating as licensed cash wholesalers with direct access to cash, a move that could benefit their businesses, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It presented the plan to banks this month and will engage with industry experts starting January. Rolling out the strategy could take as much as three years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Reserve Bank plans to overhaul South Africa’s cash system, including introducing new ATMs that should make it cheaper to access funds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":830483,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[1554,5623,2924],"class_list":["post-846476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-atm","tag-cash","tag-reserve-bank"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=846476"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":846477,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846476\/revisions\/846477"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/830483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=846476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=846476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=846476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}