{"id":3904,"date":"2025-12-15T19:40:35","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T19:40:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=3904"},"modified":"2025-12-15T19:40:35","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T19:40:35","slug":"sarb-plans-atm-and-cash-system-transformation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=3904","title":{"rendered":"Sarb plans ATM and cash system transformation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"textFreeArticle\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/iframe.iono.fm\/e\/1628911?layout=modern\" width=\"100%\" height=\"170\" frameborder=\"0\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>You can also listen to this podcast on iono.fm here.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JIMMY MOYAHA: <\/strong>This week, the South African Reserve Bank announced that it would continue \u2013 as part of its modernisation efforts \u2013 to overhaul South Africa\u2019s cash system. And surprise, surprise, the focus point here is on ATMs. The Reserve Bank, through the creation of a cash-management company, is potentially looking to roll out universal ATMs, which means you and I as consumers would finally be able to use any ATM to access our funds.<\/p>\n<p>Read: South Africa set for biggest cash-system overhaul in decades<\/p>\n<p>For more on this I\u2019m joined on the line by the head of the Payments Ecosystem Modernisation Programme at the Reserve Bank, Pradeep Maharaj, to take a look at this and see what we make of it. Pradeep, lovely to have you on the show. Thanks so much for taking the time.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s first start by giving some of our listeners a bit of context around the modernisation programme and the efforts of the Reserve Bank \u2013 and why these programmes are in place.<\/p>\n<p><strong>PRADEEP MAHARAJ: <\/strong>We start with a programme that looks to digitise payments in South Africa. What we want to do is bring digital payment options to every person in this country. They must have that choice, and it should be at a fairly low cost or no cost. It should be very secure and very safe and should cost very little.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>In doing that, we will see a reduction in cash. Currently, 62% of South Africans rely on cash for their daily transactions. We\u2019d like to see that come down dramatically.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>While providing digital payment options, we will drive better social development outcomes and we could be adding to economic growth.<\/p>\n<p>Listen: ATMs closing across SA: Will we become cashless?<\/p>\n<div class=\"visible-sm-block visible-xs-block m1010\">\n<div class=\"ad-container-wrapper\">\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>In any case, digital payments will act as a necessary but not sufficient condition for greater financial inclusion. Of course, in doing that, seeing cash come down, we\u2019ve now got a strategy that responds to the challenges of the cost of cash, the accessibility of cash in the economy, and to ensure that those who do rely on cash will also see a dramatic reduction in the cost of that cash, as well as increased accessibility of that cash.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JIMMY MOYAHA: <\/strong>Now, Pradeep, from a modernisation perspective we know that moving to a digital payment infrastructure is not going to be something that happens overnight, especially given that South Africa moves about R180\u00a0billion in cash in a single year. For a lot of people, as you rightly mentioned, that is the way they transact primarily.<\/p>\n<p>If we\u2019re now looking at this cash-smart strategy and the modernisation and potentially making cash more accessible, what does that mean for how we reform what is currently there? Currently, a lot of the banks have their own ATMs. What would universal ATMs even mean?<\/p>\n<p><strong>PRADEEP MAHARAJ: <\/strong>Universal ATMs \u2013 and in central banking terms, financial terms, what we call \u2018white label\u2019 ATMs \u2013 means that there\u2019s no branding of a particular brand of financial institution whose ATM is recognised.<\/p>\n<p>Listen\/read: Insights on how SA\u2019s payment tech stacks up globally<\/p>\n<p>It would be a universal ATM. Therefore it doesn\u2019t matter which institution holds your account or your store of value; you will be able to access that cash at any of the ATMs without any additional charges or costs, which means that the cost of using the ATM then comes down dramatically.<\/p>\n<p>Currently if you go to a garage you will see four ATMs lined up against each other, all different banks. What we will do is remove three of them, leave one, make it a \u2018white label\u2019 and use the other three in areas which are underserved at this point in time.<\/p>\n<p>This means that without wanting to invest in more ATMs, you actually increase the accessibility of cash through ATMs across the country.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JIMMY MOYAHA: <\/strong>Pradeep, we have seen white-label ATMs in the past. We\u2019ve seen other operators offer this to South Africans in the past, and the main concern there was around the rates for a lot of the banks and a lot of the relationships between the banks. This came at a significant cost to the consumers.<\/p>\n<p>How is this modernisation programme or this modernisation strategy going to look to address that aspect of it from a banking perspective? Are we saying that from a central bank perspective there\u2019s going to be a mandate that the commercial banks need to execute on \u2013 which then creates that affordability?<\/p>\n<p><strong>PRADEEP MAHARAJ: <\/strong>Yes. We\u2019ll do a few things. One is that we will rationalise the infrastructure that serves cash for the demand in the country. We\u2019ve got 112, 113 cash centres around the country today, all in private-sector hands.<\/p>\n<div class=\"visible-sm-block visible-xs-block m1010\">\n<div class=\"ad-container-wrapper\">\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT:<\/p>\n<p>CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>We\u2019d want to bring that into the utility function and rationalise that, which means that the cost of getting cash to an end user will drop.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The number of movements of vehicles moving cash will also reduce dramatically.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Then you go down the route of white-label ATMs. Again, you will rationalise that infrastructure. You will locate them better and you will reduce the movement of cash to those ATMs and back. In doing so, you reduce overall costs. Because they\u2019re going to be white-label ATMs you will do away with what we call today \u2018interchange\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Interchange is a fee set by the South African Reserve Bank that allows for \u2013 if I\u2019m banking at bank A and I go to an ATM that\u2019s provided by Bank B \u2013 a cost of using that ATM that I will pay, because that\u2019s an interchange [fee] between Bank A and Bank B in order to use their facility.<\/p>\n<p>Listen\/read: How the Sarb\u2019s new payments exemptions will affect consumers<\/p>\n<p>What we\u2019ll do is do away with all of that. Therefore the cost to the end user will come down quite dramatically.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JIMMY MOYAHA: <\/strong>Pradeep, what does this mean for the retailers? We know that a lot of cash transactions are facilitated by the likes of the Shoprite Group, the Pick\u00a0n\u00a0Pay Group, the Spar Group. What does this mean in terms of modernisation for accessing cash at retail till points? Is that going to be affected as part of this modernisation strategy?<\/p>\n<p><strong>PRADEEP MAHARAJ: <\/strong>We are proposing that we have discussions with the big retailers. The third leg of our modernisation strategy is to deal with ethical cash. \u2018Ethical cash\u2019 refers to a regulatory framework, a licensing framework for the handling of cash.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>What we\u2019d like to see is that put a framework together that allows you to license wholesalers of cash.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The retailers Pick\u00a0n\u00a0Pay, Shoprite, Spar and a whole range of others could then apply for a licence and be treated as a wholesaler, which means that we propose to them that they become part of the utility and access this cash directly from the utility, so their cost of cash will come down as well and, again, impact on the end users\u2019 cost of cash and also make it more accessible.<\/p>\n<div class=\"visible-sm-block visible-xs-block m1010\">\n<div class=\"ad-container-wrapper\">\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT:<\/p>\n<p>CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>And then we will normalise what an interchange should be, what the retailer would be able to charge at the till for cash\u00a0in or cash\u00a0out.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JIMMY MOYAHA: <\/strong>Pradeep, before I let you go, from a modernisation perspective this obviously is an ongoing programme that hasn\u2019t just started now and won\u2019t end anytime soon. Do we have kind of timelines around when we might expect to see some of these rollouts happening \u2013 or at least when consultation with the market and with industry could take place?<\/p>\n<p><strong>PRADEEP MAHARAJ: <\/strong>We announced the strategy two weeks ago. We\u2019ve begun consultation with the industry and we are hoping to broaden that consultation in January and February. We\u2019d like to have a draft kind of discussion paper around licensing and the framework around regulating cash sometime by the end of March, sometime in April.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>We think that we can start to run out phase one of a white-label ATM solution towards the end of next year.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Hopefully, if all things go well we\u2019ll also have the utility function up and running by then. This journey will take us probably two to three years.<\/p>\n<p>Read: As banks close branches, Africa\u2019s unbanked face a digital divide<\/p>\n<p>However, we are quite keen to start to see some low-hanging fruit beginning to [materialise] in servicing the needs of the people who rely on cash. Generally the most vulnerable are those who can least afford the high costs associated with cash.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JIMMY MOYAHA: <\/strong>Modernising South Africa\u2019s payment and monetary systems to ensure that greater accessibility is achieved and there is a reduced reliance on cash \u2013 that is the aim of the South African Reserve Bank. We\u2019ll keep an eye on these efforts and see how they continue to unfold.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ll leave this conversation on that note, though. Thank you so much to the head of the Payments Ecosystem Modernisation Programme at the South African Reserve Bank, Pradeep Maharaj, for joining us to take a look at their efforts and what this would mean.<\/p>\n<p><em>Follow Moneyweb\u2019s in-depth finance and business news on WhatsApp here.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script data-cfasync=\"false\">\n            !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n            {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n                n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n                if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n                n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n                t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n                s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script',\n                'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n            fbq('init', '779812924991616');\n            fbq('track', 'PageView');\n        <\/script>#Sarb #plans #ATM #cash #system #transformation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You can also listen to this po&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3905,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[3794,161,548,3693,1043,2079],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3904"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}