PayShap was introduced in a bid to make banking cheaper, more accessible and inclusive. Using the PayShap system, consumers can transfer up to R3,000 between banks and have their money cleared within 60 seconds.

In the true challenger style which it has become known for, TymeBank, South Africa’s fastest-growing digital bank, has made the real-time interbank digital payment service free of charge to 7.6 million customers.

Cheslyn Jacobs, TymeBank’s chief commercial officer, says the bank has already been offering customers different low-cost instant payment options for some time.

“We have been eagerly awaiting our turn to join the PayShap revolution. By making PayShap to mobile numbers free, we are giving all our individual and business customers the opportunity to fully enjoy the benefits of real-time digital payments across banks without having to worry about transaction fees,” he says.

PayShap benefits include:

• No need to exchange banking details: PayShap enables payments using an identifier other than a bank account number, ie a cellphone number (ShapID) registered with a participating bank.
• Secure payments within seconds: Send and receive money instantly with the guarantee that money will reflect immediately in the recipient’s account.
• Send or receive money from any bank offering PayShap: This means that PayShap transactions can now take place between Absa, Capitec, Discovery Bank, FNB, Nedbank, Standard Bank or TymeBank.

“Built as a South African payments industry initiative, PayShap has been changing the way South Africans pay since its market launch in March.

“We are extremely excited to welcome TymeBank to this exciting space that offers a wide range of benefits for individuals and small merchant account holders,” says Mpho Sadiki, chief product officer at BankservAfrica.

The second leg of PayShap’s implementation will introduce an additional request-to-pay function which makes it possible for a person to request payment and receive money securely and immediately in their bank account.

“We are passionate about financial inclusion and making banking affordable for everyone, which is why we decided to make PayShap free for our customers, having seen similar digital payment systems introduced in Brazil, India and Singapore successfully for free,” says TymeBank chief executive, Coen Jonker.

PayShap is automatically enabled for all TymeBank customers.

There is no need to register a “ShapID” using a cellphone number. Payments sent to “cellphonenumber@TYME” will automatically be routed to the customer associated with that specific cellphone number, and the details of the receiving customer are displayed prior to the payment being finalised.

It’s important to note that funds are not stored on your mobile device and are always paid directly into the beneficiary’s bank account, within seconds. This means if your phone is stolen, the thief has no access to the funds.

Approaching the one-million transaction milestone

By 3 August this year, less than six months after it launched, PayShap had already recorded 800,000 transactions with a settlement value of more than R660-million.

Sadiki says the strong response, consistent growth in adoption levels and transaction volumes are what the payments agency had initially hoped for.

PayShap data by BankservAfrica – from the service’s launch date to 31 July 2023 – shows that more than 300,000 ShapIDs have been registered.

As a secure registered PayShap identifier, ShapIDs are linked to participating account holders’ banking profiles and replace the need to share bank account details for payment.

For person-to-person payments, ShapIDs are linked to the account holder’s cellphone number and provide a secure, simple and convenient option for instant interbank payments.

“We are seeing an increase in users opting to use their mobile number as their ShapID for instant and convenient payments,” says Sadiki.

“With this innovative service, we’ll help reduce reliance on cash, making everyday transactions more convenient, affordable, effortless and safer for our over 20 million clients,” says Busi Radebe, head: card and electronic payments at Capitec.

“By integrating Payshap into our real-time payment systems, we automatically route payments through PayShap where appropriate, offering clients a single, seamless and more affordable way to complete payments instantly,” says Akash Dowra, head of client insights at Discovery Bank. DM