The South African Reserve Bank has published a draft National Payment System Department directive that would bring cross-border payment facilitators into South Africa’s payment system perimeter and tighten the treatment of domestic retail payments. The draft would require payment instruments used for domestic payments to be issued by domestic issuers and domestic transactions to be acquired by domestic acquirers, while allowing cross-border payment facilitators to operate under sponsorship arrangements with authorised domestic acquirers. The move is aimed at addressing the misclassification of domestic transactions as cross-border transactions, which the bank says can weaken oversight, undermine domestic processing capability and expose customers to international transaction fees for domestic goods and services. Under the proposal, a sponsoring domestic acquirer would need prior written approval from the National Payment System Department before onboarding a cross-border payment facilitator and would remain fully accountable for acquiring, settlement, scheme compliance and all regulatory obligations linked to the arrangement. Cross-border payment facilitators would need to be South African registered companies acting on behalf of offshore merchants, and the framework would impose requirements on merchant due diligence, transaction transparency, anti-money laundering and sanctions controls, consumer protection, and segregation of merchant funds in a separate South African bank account. Domestic issuers would also need to distinguish clearly between domestic and cross-border transactions and disclose applicable fees, while sponsoring acquirers would have to report biannually on onboarded facilitators, offshore merchants, and aggregate transaction volumes and values. Comments on the draft National Payment System Department directive are due by 17 July 2026. The final directive will be published at the same time as the Financial Surveillance Department’s cross-border retail e-commerce circular, which is being developed in parallel, and the directive would take effect six months after publication and replace the 2020 directive on domestic card transactions.
South African Reserve Bank2026-06-23
South African Reserve Bank launches consultation on draft rules for cross-border payment facilitators and domestic payment acquiring
The South African Reserve Bank has proposed a new framework for cross-border payment facilitators and stricter rules requiring domestic retail payments to be issued and acquired domestically. Cross-border facilitators would be allowed only under sponsored arrangements with domestic acquirers, which would need prior approval and would remain responsible for compliance, merchant oversight and reporting. Comments on the draft are due by 17 July 2026.