Standard Bank has launched a corporate rapid payments platform designed to offer corporate clients instant payments.
The platform gives businesses the ability to receive and payout money instantly. Additionally, it enables them to onboard suppliers quickly as its not limited to full banking account details but can accept proxies as well.
“The new rapid payments platform offers an exciting alternative to the traditional payment mechanisms of cards and physical cash, which either have high costs or risks attached to them,” says Stuart McDermid, executive head: product solutions at Standard Bank.
Payshap gives businesses the opportunity to relook at their business and leverage these new technologies to reduce risk, minimise cost and increase cashflow by starting the move to real time payments. Businesses can improve efficiencies by reducing the time and resources required for cash handling, managing reconciliation, and risk.
“New services like this are becoming increasingly important to help South Africa reduce cash, become more efficient and align with the global standards. According to recent media reports, the plans and execution of these new technologies by the banking industry will ensure that the South African Reserve Bank Vision of 2025 is achieved,” says Nthabiseng Mohale, manager interbank and regulator forums at Standard Bank.
Visa’s Spend Trend 2023 report states that the Covid-19 pandemic significantly impacted consumer spending behaviour across both the world and South Africa – this was one of the key drivers to help incentivise the move by Standard Banks corporate clients to digital transactions.
While the digital rapid payments platform minimises the potential risks associated with cash handling by businesses, it also allows them to broaden their access and services to the unbanked and underbanked in remote or rural areas, where traditionally cash is the dominant way of transacting.
An additional benefit of the new platform is that it simplifies the onboarding process to allow clients to start transacting without incurring IT or integration costs.
“In developing this solution, we partnered with our clients over the past two years to bring them a solution that they wanted and needed. Following on from this, clients can test and learn before signing up to the facility” says Mohale.