BankservAfrica, the company responsible for clearing payments between SA’s largest banks, has rebranded, changing its name to PayInc.
This comes as the Competition Commission recommended that the SA Reserve Bank’s move to take up a 50% stake in the business be approved without conditions.
At an event in Midrand late on Thursday, the company unveiled its new corporate image, colours, logo and name.
BankservAfrica is the largest automated payments clearing house in Africa and processes bank card, ATM and EFT transactions between the country’s banks as part of the SA National Payments System.
PayInc began its life in 1972 as the Automated Clearing Bureau (ACB), SA’s first payments clearing house. The name was changed to Bankserv in 1993 and then to BankservAfrica in 2010.
When asked if the latest name change was tied to the impending Reserve Bank transaction, PayInc CEO Stephen Linnell told Business Day: “It’s not explicitly tied to it.”
“We have been considering, in the last couple of years, whether we can take a more active role in the broader market. Now we operate largely as a central utility for the banks. We think payments are a catalyst for economic growth and we felt that we needed to take a much more active stance.”
The company argues that its rebrand falling on the same day as the commission giving its green light to the deal is a coincidence.
The Reserve Bank’s intention to take up half of BankservAfrica was announced in November 2024, with the aim to transition the company “into a national payments utility through a collaboration with commercial bank shareholders.”
The company is a joint venture between the country’s largest banks — FirstRand, Standard Bank, Absa and Nedbank — each holding 23.125% of the equity. The balance of ownership had been held by Bidvest, Capitec, Citibank SA, Investec, Sasfin, Access Bank and African Bank, through an entity called Dandyshelf.
If approved, the transaction will see SA’s central bank taking up a 50% stake with the other 50% being held by the banks.
“What will happen is we as PayInc will buy back the shares of Dandyshelf, the minority company. Those banks that are currently in Dandyshelf will have direct subscription into PayInc itself,” said Linnell.
He said Capitec would come in as a direct shareholder, with an equal stake to the other large banks, “and then some of the smaller banks would come in with minority equity interests”.
As to the rationale for rebranding the business, Linnell said: “Part of it was around expanding who our custom base would be and part of it is being more deliberate around the market entry point of some of our products. So this has been something that we have been planning for probably 14 months.
“At the same time, we have been discussing the transaction with the central bank. While this is not directly linked to it, it was important that the strategy and the branding were congruent with the potential of a transaction. So we did engage with the Sarb while we were considering this,” Linnell said.
“The timing is opportune. I think it marries the strategy and that deal very well.”
In March 2023, BankservAfrica and the Payments Association of SA launched PayShap, which offers consumers cheap access to instant payments across participating banks using cellphone numbers.
Two years prior, in 2021, the company launched its Transactions Cleared on an Immediate Basis (TCIB) payments service with the aim of a greater reduction in the cost and time to process cross-border payments.
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