South Africa Becomes First Country to Launch Real-Time Mastercard Payments
In a landmark move for the digital finance landscape, South Africa has become the first country to adopt Mastercard’s real-time card payments system. This innovative system allows banks to process transactions instantly, significantly improving financial efficiency for businesses and consumers alike.
With this real-time payments solution, South African merchants will benefit from faster payouts, providing them with quicker access to funds and enhancing cash flow management. This is particularly beneficial for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which often rely on timely payments to manage daily operations and fuel growth.
Gabriel Swanepoel, Mastercard’s Southern Africa Country Manager, hailed the initiative, stating, “This is a major step forward in modernising the payments system in South Africa. As the expectations of consumers and the needs of businesses evolve, we are ensuring payments keep pace with the speed of customers’ lives.”
In addition to streamlining cash flow, the real-time payments system is expected to accelerate the velocity of money within the South African economy. By allowing funds to circulate more rapidly, businesses will gain greater financial visibility, which can contribute to broader economic growth. This initiative is also aligned with the South African Reserve Bank’s National Payments System Strategy Vision 2025, which focuses on modernising financial infrastructure and promoting financial inclusion.
Mastercard has partnered with global payments technology provider ACI Worldwide to support the smooth integration of real-time transaction standards across South African payment processors. The company’s recent network expansion in 2023 further strengthened the local payment infrastructure, paving the way for this innovation.
South Africa’s payments ecosystem has grown rapidly in recent years, yet businesses have continued to face delays in payment settlements, sometimes waiting days for transactions to clear. These delays have posed particular challenges for SMEs, which depend on timely access to funds. The introduction of Mastercard’s real-time payments system will address these challenges, enabling businesses to operate more efficiently.
The South African Reserve Bank has already taken steps toward financial digitisation with the launch of Payshap, an interbank real-time payments platform for smaller transactions. Mastercard’s new system complements these efforts by introducing immediate card payments, moving the country closer to a fully modernised and inclusive financial system.
In the future, Mastercard plans to extend real-time capabilities to issuing banks, giving consumers real-time insights into their spending and improving payment transparency. South Africa’s early adoption of this technology marks a significant milestone, positioning the country as a leader in global payment innovation and setting an example for others to follow.
