What G20 payment reforms could mean for SA’s international money transfer industry
South Africa took on the presidency of the G20 in 2025 with six headline priorities. By Harry Scherzer, CEO of Future Forex Alongside debt sustainability for low-income countries, mobilising finance for a just energy transition, food security, disaster resilience, and...
Absa partners with Ripple to expand digital asset custody
Absa Bank has announced a strategic partnership with Ripple to provide digital asset custody to its customers in South Africa. Through the partnership, Absa will leverage Ripple’s institutional-grade digital asset custody technology to deliver scalable and secure...
Financial services need to balance agility with compliance in the cloud
For financial institutions, the cloud has moved beyond experimentation. It is now a strategic imperative, underpinning everything from digital banking to real-time analytics. Yet in today’s regulatory and risk-conscious environment, the question is no longer whether...
Digital payment solutions fuel spaza shop success
The township economy is one of South Africa’s strongest economic lifelines. At its centre are spaza shops - small, often family-run businesses that keep millions of households stocked with daily essentials. Yet many of these shops still rely on cash-only systems. The...
AI agents are shaking up financial trading
For years in financial services the application of natural language processing (NLP), and more recently with large language models (LLMs), has largely centered on quick insights derived from sentiment analysis or trend following. By Richard Harmon, vice-president:...
Stanchion partners with Entersekt on payment integration
Stanchion has announced a strategic partnership with Entersekt to enhance payment integration capabilities and deliver solutions to financial institutions worldwide. Founded in South Africa in 2001 and now represented across five regions, Stanchion is a PayTech...
Banks make progress toward the ultimate phishing solution
The rise in e-commerce, online banking, and digital payments has increased the number of online transactions, creating more opportunities for fraud. Each transaction involves account data, such as login credentials, account numbers, and transaction details that can be...
Mastercard expands Circle partnership for stablecoin settlement
As stablecoins continue to solve real-world challenges and improve efficiencies across a range of use-cases, Mastercard and Circle are deepening their longstanding partnership to enable USDC and EURC settlement for acquirers in the Eastern Europe, Middle East, and...
The rise of the tech-savvy finance executive
Finance teams in South Africa’s large and growing businesses are juggling more moving parts than ever. From managing results across multiple entities to keeping track of currency shifts and different reporting rules, they are certainly feeling the pressure to deliver...
Building future-ready central banks with responsible AI
The pace of change in today’s digital world has placed immense pressure on institutions to modernise, and central banks are no exception. By Ntsako Baloyi, data and AI lead for Accenture, Africa As the custodians of financial stability, these institutions are facing...
Outdated payment systems hobble supply chains
Same-day deliveries and real-time tracking have transformed consumer expectations across the globe. But the real bottleneck in supply chains, particularly in Africa and other emerging markets, isn’t just about logistics; it’s the payment systems underpinning them. By...
BFSI industries seize the GenAI opportunity for greater inclusion
South Africa's Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance (BFSI) sectors are on the cusp of a transformation, fueled by the nation’s ambitious digital agenda and the burgeoning potential of artificial intelligence (AI). By Langa Dube, country head and executive...