Another way to help South Africans go digital

The introduction of PayShap has the potential to boost South Africa’s ambitions to minimise the use of cash through digital adoption. This is according to FNB, one of the first banks to offer PayShap to its customers. PayShap provides interbank, real-time, and low-value digital payments up to R3000, and is now offered by four of South Africa’s largest banks.

To register for PayShap, FNB customers only need an active bank account number and a cellphone registered to them. Creating a ShapID is as simple as logging into the FNB App, selecting ‘Pay,’ clicking on ‘Payments Settings,’ and following the on-screen prompts. FNB offers low pricing for PayShap payments, with free transactions below R100 and an R6 fee for transactions above R100.

Sashin Sookroo, Head of Payments, FNB Personal and Private Core Banking says, “The modernisation of payment systems is a critical step in efforts to promote and entrench digital adoption in financial services. This coincides with FNB’s drive to provide a trusted digital platform that could help our customers reduce their reliance on cash through a range of alternative payment options. We see PayShap as an important part of our ecosystem, and we encourage customers to use the service.”

FNB has been consistently expanding its market-leading payments ecosystem to help customers with first-to-market solutions that are easy and safe to use. The range of payment solutions includes:

Instant Payment: The first-to-market instant payment solution allows FNB and RMB Private Bank customers to send money to family members and friends simply by entering their card number, irrespective of the recipient’s bank.

Bill Payments: The payment solution provides a quick and convenient way for FNB customers to use the FNB App to pay their bills, including municipal, medical, and education bills, using their card and maximising rewards.

PayMe: FNB customers use the service to digitally request funds from family or friends. PayMe is free on the FNB and RMB Private Banking Apps, as well as cellphone banking (USSD). The person requesting the funds follows a few prompts, and the payer is notified of the request.

eWallet: FNB customers use eWallet to send money instantly to anyone with a South African cellphone number. The recipient is not charged a fee, and the money can be used to make purchases or can be conveniently withdrawn at selected SPAR, SUPERSPAR, KWIKSPAR, and Tops stores at SPAR or at FNB ATMs.

“We are excited to embark on this journey alongside our customers. Our focus is to provide customers with an array of payment options that meet their needs. We continue to innovate to ensure that our solutions provide cost-effective value, and we are always open to pursuing partnerships that could give our efforts further impetus,” explains Sookroo.