The payment system landscape in South Africa is experiencing significant changes.

The advent of mobile payments, the discontinuation of cheques, the entry of non-bank payment service providers and the emergence of new forms of retail payments that do not directly draw on bank accounts, such as e-wallets, are some of the recent changes that have been seen.

The SARB’s Payments Study Report, the first of its kind in South Africa, offers regulators, policy makers and the public access to comprehensive data on the use of the different payments instruments in the country.

The report reveals that the payments landscape has an undercurrent of cash payments being highly complemented with debit card payments. Banking apps are gaining traction and will likely continue to grow as a payment method.

Other payment methods such as digital payments (e.g. virtual cards) are offered by a range of service providers but remain niche and exclusive. The correlation between affluence and level of education against the different payment method applications is clear.

Read the full study here.