RainFin, a South African peer-to-peer lending platform, has announced that Absa Bank have acquired a 49% stake in their business. The investment, cited to be in the tens of millions, will be utilised to support working capital, credit and risk expertise and access to liquidity as well as to grow the business and improve offerings.
South Africans are abandoning cash for card payments, cutting banking costs by reducing the need to transport money, according to First National Bank (FNB). The bank reported in December card payments were ZAR3 billion (US$289 million) higher than cash withdrawals, though this had fallen again by January. “The gap between purchases made with banknotes compared
Effective Measures has released a report on e-commerce in South Africa. They surveyed over 10,000 internet users with desktop access in South Africa in order to ascertain their online shopping habits. Some of the key insights they uncovered include: 73.76% of online shoppers will use the internet to make payments, transfer money and pay utility
Why are retailers (or for that matter banks and telecoms service providers) not making an absolute killing in the mobile payment space? Most importantly, why are retailers missing out on potential new revenue streams? Even in an emerging market like South Africa, where mobile penetration is estimated to be around 128%, only nine percent of
Naspers has confirmed its investment arm MIH is shutting down a number of its South African e-commerce sites. Last week e-commerce sites SACamera, 5rooms, Kinderelo and Style36 were taken down, showing maintenance messages, but Naspers has now confirmed the shutdowns are part of a wider policy to refocus resources on larger properties such as Kalahari.
FNB’s cashless branch, dotFNB, is the first bank in South Africa to launch interactive gesture technology in its flagship Canal Walk store. The introduction of this technology into the store front serves as yet another digital touch point for the bank to communicate with both FNB and non-FNB customers. This motion sensor technology recognises the
Latest statistics released by the Spark Cash Index (SCI), which measures the average value of cash withdrawals across more than 2 200 Spark Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) throughout South Africa, showed a considerable decrease in ATM withdrawal levels for January 2014 and illustrates that consumers have reigned in their spending following the festive season. The
Concert- and theatre-goers, tourists and music fans in South Africa can now purchase their tickets to various festivals, events and tourist sites online or via their mobile and simply load their tickets onto their Webtickets card. ‘The Card’, as it is formally known, means you no longer need a printer to print off tickets. And
Mobile Telecommunications Limited (MTC) Namibia, a network and Telecommunications Company, has partnered with Mobicash Payment Solutions (Pty) Ltd, trading as MobiPay to offer mobile payment solutions in Namibia. MTC Money is a payment solutions that allows you to use your cellphone to transfer/withdraw/deposit money, buy airtime, electricity, pay bills and make Point of Sale (POS)
Due to the increase in Card not Present (CNP) fraud in South Africa, the Payment Association of South Africa (PASA) has made a decision to mandate the implementation of 3D Secure for all e-commerce merchants. The deadline for this implementation has been set at 28 February 2014. 3D Secure is the collective term used for
