Peach Payments and Capitec launch Open Banking solution

Open Banking is a banking practice that provides third-party financial service providers open, permission-based access to consumer banking, transaction, and other financial data from banks and non-bank financial institutions. It is widely considered a keyway to democratise financial services, as it gives consumers more choices in how they manage their money. The number of Open Banking users worldwide is expected to grow at an average annual rate of nearly 50% between 2020 and 2024 according to statista.com.

Capitec Pay is a proprietary immediate-payment initiation API solution that is based on Open Banking standards and best practices. It allows Capitec banking clients to pay securely online by entering their phone numbers and then authorising the payment in-app.

Peach Payments’ integration with Capitec Pay should be able to offer better security than traditional Instant EFT solutions, which rely on screen-scraping and require banking users to share sensitive account login information such as usernames and passwords. The API-based solution not only reduces the risk of fraudulent activity but also makes it easier for Capitec’s base of banking clients to pay their basic bills online.

The advantages for merchants include that payments are made instantly, with none of the transaction limitations of manual EFTs. Payment verification means merchants are not subject to fraudulent transaction charge-backs. In addition, merchants’ administrative work is reduced as a result of automated payment-to-transaction allocations in their Peach Payments dashboard.

Peach Payments makes online commerce and digital payments accessible to small and large merchants across the African continent. It works with businesses in Kenya, Mauritius, and South Africa, providing a toolkit that allows them to accept, manage and make payments via mobile and the web.

Open Banking is becoming the norm

Banking companies have recently embraced Open Banking, and this has had an influence on governments as well. Starting with 1 March 2023, Brazil embarked on the second phase of Open Insurance implementation, which will run until July 2023.

Based on Open Banking technology, this phase allows for the sharing of personal data such as customer registration and movement related to products if the customers provide their consent. The General Coordinator of Projects at the Superintendence of Private Insurance (Susep) explains that this phase will begin with the sharing of registration data and home insurance data. This opening of customer data will hopefully allow for the development of more assertive and customised products that cater to the customers' needs and risks. Companies will supposedly be able to develop new tools and offer more solutions to their customers.