{"id":869261,"date":"2026-08-22T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=869261"},"modified":"2026-08-21T17:13:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T15:13:33","slug":"end-of-an-era-for-atms-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/869261\/end-of-an-era-for-atms-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"End of an era for ATMs in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) is pushing ahead with its new cash strategy, which proposes a massive shift for ATMs in the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SARB recently published a Position Paper on Cash in South Africa, outlining three primary objectives for cash: reducing costs, ensuring equitable access and securing physical currency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While digital payments continue to rise in prominence, cash remains essential for over two-thirds of transactions in South Africa, especially in rural areas, informal markets and lower-income households. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Half of the cost of cash is also believed to be borne by consumers, which the SARB estimates at around R89 billion per year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SARB’s Cash Smart Strategy thus seeks to expand cash accessibility by establishing a regulatory framework for the deployment of white-label ATMs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This would be done via a national cash utility and licensing non-banks to improve access to wholesale cash. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SARB said that white-label ATMs are a central access mechanism for sustaining cash availability, especially for traditional bank-owned ATM infrastructure, which is rationalised. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Reserve Bank noted that white-label ATMs are envisaged as part of the \u201cutility-coordinated access layer that facilitates geographic rebalancing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike traditional ATMs in South Africa, which are operated and branded by a commercial bank, white-label ATMs lack branding and are accessible to all South Africans, regardless of their bank. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These white-label ATMs are also expected to lower fees for customers across South Africa, as non-branded ATMs incur no fees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These ATMs are envisaged to serve neglected areas and reduce the time and travel costs borne by cash-reliant travellers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking to the media, Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank Rashad Cassim noted that the SARB has an important societal role to play. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He noted that the SARB looks at market efficiencies and would be happy for the private sector to lead the innovation if it is better at doing so than state institutions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, there are issues: urban areas are home to many ATMs, while rural areas often lack access to these cash systems. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still working with the players <\/h2>\n\n\n
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Reserve Bank Deputy Governor Rashad Cassim <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The proposed change to ATMs marks a massive policy shift and threatens banks and logistics partners that have invested billions into the network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cassim said that engagement on the position paper is ongoing and that the SARB is aware that many businesses operate in line with current regulations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that the SARB will release new information on its Position Paper in the coming months. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SARB’s plan for the National Cash Utility is to consolidate all cash centres under a single umbrella. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, in response to questions from BusinessTech, he said it is still too early to see how this will be implemented. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SARB could take over the cash centres, which would increase its assets and costs, or it could partner with banks in a stake. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SARB recently took a 50% stake in PayInc, formerly BankservAfrica, as it looks to expand the rollout of Payshap. PayInc’s other shareholders include the big the nation’s big five banks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The South African Reserve Bank is pushing ahead for its new ATM strategy in South Africa, but further details are still on the way. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":812493,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"failed","_sma_x_autopost_error":"Instagram publishing failed: Instagram returned HTTP 400: Media ID is not available","_sma_x_post_id":"2091118444531892416","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2183408982479501","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[2924,3619],"class_list":["post-869261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-reserve-bank","tag-sarb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869261","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\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=869261"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":869279,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869261\/revisions\/869279"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/812493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}