South African Reserve Bank outlines nonbank authorisation and QR+ pilot milestones for payments modernisation

South African Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago outlined delivery milestones for opening payment system access to nonbanks and expanding interoperable digital payments in an address to the bank’s Payments Conference 2026. The Authorisation Framework is intended for publication by the end of November 2026. Together with the proposed Exemption Notice, it would allow appropriately regulated nonbanks to undertake specified payment activities without a banking licence, replacing access through bank intermediaries with regulation based on activities and risks. Participants would face requirements covering governance, protection of customer funds, operational resilience and reporting. PayShap has exceeded 1 billion transactions worth more than ZAR 1 trillion since its 2023 launch, but its 2025 transaction volume was only about 6% of card volumes. Work to address adoption constraints is intended to begin by the end of March 2027, focusing on inconsistent functionality and limits, unclear pricing, low awareness and limited merchant acceptance. Pricing remains a commercial decision. A QR+ pilot is planned for the first quarter of 2027, allowing merchants to display one interoperable code that customers can use through their preferred payment service. This follows the July update to the QR+ Standard supporting integration with PayShap. Development of the PEMKey digital identity initiative will continue, with reusable credentials held in a wallet controlled by the individual to reduce repeated onboarding. Customer consent and safeguards would govern reuse, and access to essential payments must not depend on accepting unrelated data uses. For regional payments, qualifying transactions of up to ZAR 100,000 are planned to move from the Southern African Development Community Real-Time Gross Settlement system to Transactions Cleared on an Immediate Basis (TCIB) by late April 2027. TCIB is designed for lower-value regional payments in real time. By October 2027, its pilot is intended to cover eight countries through a common regional hub, reducing reliance on multiple bilateral connections.