BankservAfrica went live with an Application Programming Interface (API) for its Real-Time Clearing (RTC) payments solution. The first financial transactions on RTC were processed on 20 October 2021, after the API development was completed successfully by BankservAfrica and TymeBank. TymeBank is the first South African bank to leverage this modern and agile connectivity to BankservAfrica’s core payments infrastructure.
APIs are envisioned to complement or replace existing legacy interfaces on all BankservAfrica’s payments solutions. These new developments bring the future BankservAfrica 2.0 a step closer.
“This is game-changing in that TymeBank is the first South African bank to go live with our API innovations on BankservAfrica’s modernised payments platform,” says Jan Pilbauer, CEO of BankservAfrica.
BankservAfrica’s modernised payments platform will be fully API-enabled and leverage micro-services and cloud-native technologies. This new platform will soon also host the Rapid Payments solution, currently under development in the Rapid Payments Programme by the South African banking industry. Rapid Payments are the next major step towards BankservAfrica 2.0.
“The APIs, which are aligned to ISO 20022, allows TymeBank to seamlessly connect onto the platform to access BankservAfrica’s RTC and Account Verification Services (AVS), thereby speeding up onboarding and lowering the barriers to entry,” explains Ben Janse van Rensburg, Technology Lead for Modernisation at BankservAfrica.
Nowadays, APIs are widely used in modern system designs and significantly reduce the time needed to onboard new users to these systems. Implementation of these new interfaces, which complement the legacy ISO 8583, make BankservAfrica’s systems more accessible to a larger number of financial institutions.
The APIs for RTC and AVS Batch broadens BankservAfrica’s offerings from the AVS Real-Time API, first introduced to TymeBank in July 2020.
“We are extremely happy to have reached this point of successful completion for APIs with TymeBank. Although there were a few learning moments along the way, we persevered and successfully delivered within incredibly ambitious deadlines. These have made the recent win even more rewarding for all,” says Ben.
“This is a brilliant achievement! Both API deployments are important for our customers and our business. Well done BankservAfrica!” says Tauriq Keraan, CEO of TymeBank.
“Team BankservAfrica and Tyme Bank are absolutely amazing. Thank you all for your magnificent efforts,” says Cheslyn Jacobs, Head of Sales and Service at TymeBank.
